Stained clothes and a dirty face.
But still our Marco.
I want to reach inside each photograph and protect him from every shadow.
And I can see it in Beth's eyes too.
So much tenderness.
So much heartache for everything he's been through.
Louise loved Marco fiercely inside a battlefield.
One that she didn’t know how to escape.
That love and fear are both apparent in these photos.
Both in her twenties when her son was born, and the years beyond.
But Beth loves him too.
She’s a mum of a different sort.
She’s been his refuge for almost half his life.
She offered the first roof over his head where he could truly breathe.
This is the woman who gave him a ladder out of the nightmare.
Sitting on either side of him, we turn to look at each other, as if to say:
He may have been through hell.
But we can love him now.
We can be his anchor.
That's the one thing we can do.
the thirty third chapter
AMOS
When was the last time I slept through the night?
All the way through until dawn, without noise or light to disturb me?
Even at the lake, I woke early.
Too much on my mind, after that fireside conversation.
But here? Here I feel completely at ease.
Beth’s home is a much needed haven.
And now, the man I love has finally made peace with his past.
I feel the heaviness soften.
