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his shoulder tenderly, noticing how thin he was.
    “If I could go with her tonight, I would gladly do so. We have been together so long…just the two of us. Do you think Da Hah would grant such a thing? I have no more use for this world with Joanna gone.”
    He turned his head toward the ceiling, and Ella could see his sunken eyes in the dim flicker of the kerosene lamp. They were brimming with tears.
    “ Da Hah has His reasons,” she whispered, surprised at herself. “Reasons we cannot see.”
    His eyes blinked and fixed on her face. He pondered her for a long moment, and then recognition slowly came.
    “You are Ella Yoder,” he said, his voice rasping in the still room.
    Behind her Ella heard movement at the bedroom door and then silence. Apparently Ivan and Susanna had noticed the conversation and decided to leave them alone for a moment.
    “Yah,” she whispered.
    “You lost that Aden awhile back, didn’t you? Before you could marry him?”
    She nodded, afraid to trust her voice.
    “Then you have also suffered—and so young,” he said, nodding slowly, his eyes returning to the face on the bed. “My heart can never be comforted though…not in this world. It is for you young people that life goes on. Do you think I will see her again soon?”
    “Yes,” Ella said, her voice trembling.
    “I loved her,” he whispered, barely able to say the words, struggling to gather himself. There followed moments of silence. No words were necessary. Then the old man spoke. “We must prepare her for the ground—as Da Hah has now taken her. I am too weak for such a thing, but Susanna will help you. And the people must be told.”
    “There’s quite a storm outside,” Ella said. “But Ivan will notify people in the morning. It may be that long before anyone can get out anyway.”
    “Yah,” he said with a slow nod. “So it is. But Da Hah knows what He’s doing.”
    Ella took her hand from his shoulder, ready to go.
    He spoke again. “The clock must be stopped. Can you do that?”
    “I can,” Ella said. “Susanna will also know the time.”
    He nodded, his eyes steady on his wife’s face.
    Ella left him, stepping back into the bright glow of the living room and finding Ivan gone.
    “He’s gone back to check on the girls,” Susanna said, answering the question in Ella’s eyes.
    “Perhaps I should stay with them, and Ivan should remain here,” Ella said. “Oh, and your daett wants the clock stopped.”
    Susanna raised her eyes toward the tall old clock in the corner.
    Ella looked. The big pendulum was no longer swinging.
    “I stopped it while you were with him. Thank you for being there for him.”
    “He needed someone to talk to.”
    “And it was good that it was you, Ella. It’s hard to talk with your children at times like these. He loved Mamm a lot.”
    “I could see that,” Ella said. She noticed that Susanna had started a fire in the woodstove. A tub of water sat on the stove, steam already rising from it.
    “I don’t think I need help,” Susanna said, following Ella’s glance. “But perhaps you could stay with Daett. I don’t want him alone or being in there when I clean Mamm.”
    Ella nodded and returned to the bedroom. She took the old man’s arm gently.
    “Why don’t you come out to the living room with me while Susanna tends to the washing?”
    He nodded and followed her without resistance.
    Ella held on to his arm, wondering at the frailness of his body. She didn’t remember him looking like this at last Sunday’s preaching service. But perhaps she hadn’t noticed. Did one grow older suddenly, in one night, when the loss was so great to bear? Ella paused, helping him into a rocker. She pulled out a chair from the kitchen table and sat down beside him.
    He glanced at Susanna once as she went past with a bowl of water, a towel, and a washcloth draped over her arm. Then his eyes found the clock in the corner, and he seemed satisfied. His body sagged in the rocker.
    “She was so