Halfway to forever by Karen Kingsbury

Regardless of how happy and in love she was with Matt, a part of her would always miss Tom, the man
she'd fallen in love with as a girl, the one she'd fully expected to share her life with. She pushed those
thoughts away and carried the Bible back to her bedroom, holding it the way she might hold a bouquet of
dried flowers. This time she found a chair and once she was settled, she took a slow breath and opened it
to the page, halfway through the book of Proverbs, where the letter lay tucked inside.
Her name was scrawled on the envelope, but it was neither Tom's paper nor his handwriting. He'd spoken
those final words to a police officer at the scene of the accident, a man who failed to pass them on for
more than a year because he didn't think them logical.
Hannah took it from the envelope and remembered how the flood of emotion had been unleashed in her
soul the first time she
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read it. She opened it, and with eyes blurred by tears, she read it once more.
Dear Mrs. Ryan,
My name is Sgt. John Miller. I worked the accident
scene the day your husband and daughter were killed. I
came to your house with the news that day, and later I
talked with you at the hospital. You may not remember
me, but I remember you. For the past several months I've
been thinking about the accident, almost as if God
wanted me to remember something.
This morning I remembered what it was. I was with
your husband in the minutes before he died, and he
wanted me to give you a message. He wanted you to
know he loved you and the girls, but there was something
else. And that's what I finally remembered this morning.
At the time it didn't make sense, and I figured he must
have been hallucinating or suffering the effects of blood
loss. But now I am convinced that I need to deliver his
message to you in its entirety.
Tom told me to tell you to forgive, Mrs. Ryan. He
wanted you to forgive.
Even now it was amazing to imagine Tom, trapped in the twisted remains of their car, yet having the
wherewithal to know exactly what Hannah needed to hear. Tell Hannah I love her... and tell her to forgive.
Tell her to please forgive.
But here, now? Did Tom's words apply to this situation also?
To the hurt she'd harbored since losing Grace?
Hannah read the letter once more, and one by one the walls
around her heart began to collapse. Tell Hannah to forgive...
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Yes, the words applied as much today as they had three years go.
She pictured Edna Parsons and Grace's grandmother and even Matt. She'd been angry with all of them and
for what reason? Mrs. Parsons hadn't meant to cause them pain; she truly believed
Grace's adoption would go through. Otherwise she never would have called in the first place.
Patsy Landers was only doing what any grandmother would do in her situation. Certainly if jenny were
jailed and left a baby to the care of the social services system, Hannah would search the
country looking to care for that child.
She couldn't be angry at them or unforgiving, not when neither of them was guilty.