But then, oh, my blessed, he smiled. I guess from that moment I knew I was going to marry Joseph Wojtkiewicz--God, pope, three motherless children, unspellable name and all. For when he smiled, he loo...
All my dreams of leaving, but beneath them I was afraid to go. I had clung to them, to Rass, yes, even to my grandmother, afraid that if I loosened my fingers an iota, I would find myself once more co...
. . Jess believed, that she thought he was the best. It was not the kind of best that counted either at school or at home, but it was a genuine kind of best. He kept the knowledge of it buried inside...
They decided they were too hooked on money and success, so they bought that old farm and they’re going to farm it and think about what’s important.
The infamous Rape of Nanking that occurred not long afterward, just 102 miles farther north, tells a story of what might have happened at my childhood home were it not for that commander.
Shh, he said. Look.Where?Can't you see'um? he whispered. All the Terabithians standing on tiptoe to see you.Me?Shh, yes. There's a rumor going around that the beautiful girl arrving today might be the...
She had nothing against any of the other guests, but once she started she saw no way to stop. There was nothing to do but turn the hose against every arriving guest. No one coming out of the house to...
Now it was time for him to move out. She wasn’t there, so he must go for both of them. It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength.
My dearest Friend, As I am urging our students to write a note to their mothers away from Shanghai, I think of you as a mother to so many of our Chinese girls. The greatness and depth of your love onl...
John softened, and many years later he said to me, You know, if we were ever to divorce, I get the cat. There is a
Intoxicated as he was with the heavens, he could not imagine needing anything on earth.
He lived long enough to give the chaplain his name—John Goetchius—but died before he could tell the kind man where his home was.
Gee, I’m really glad I came.Jess turned to Leslie in unbelief.It was better than a movie.You’re kidding.No, I’m not. And she wasn’t. He could tell by her face. That whole Jesus thing is really interes...
Dammit, Trotter. Don't try to make a stinking Christian out of me.
Was appalled that I was heading across the world for four years, asked me: How could you do this to your mother? Well, I answered, she did it to her mother. But when my parents went to China it was di...
To my father’s amazement, was an ancient but clearly recognizable painting of Marco Polo, who must have visited Huai’an during his thirteenth-century travels about China. The priest asked my father to...
One day when I was changing her diapers she took my hand and put it on her tummy, so I tickled her. My reward was her first smile.
Thinking about myself as a crazy, independent old woman made me feel almost happy.
The moral, of course, is that you must always try to see other people's Point of View before you criticize anybody. Histories are crammed full of unkind things, silly things, and untrue things—why? Be...
The conquering army had perpetrated untold atrocities. The Japanese had occupied my home and twice forced us to leave the land I loved.