Instead Ruth handed me a stack of place cards and asked me to write the names because, she said, I had prettier handwriting.

Tobias’s cousins arrived with children who ran through the garden.

Claire joined by video from Oregon.

Lillian brought strawberries and talked with Ruth about antique radio parts despite knowing almost nothing about them.

At one point I stood in the doorway watching Tobias help a little girl reach a kite caught in a tree.

He was patient, explaining how to loosen the string without climbing too high.

I remembered the young man Jonah had been, holding up a painted sign outside a cottage.