“Lord that she might be safe. She and my children.”

“He touched the rough crucifix that lay against his chest and whispered to the moving air, "Lord, that she might be safe, she and my children." Then turned his cheek to her reaching hand and touched her throught the veils of time.”

“It's not forever', she'd said, but to my mother, it might as well have been. She had make her choice, and this was it, where she felt safe, in a world she could, for the most part, control.”

“She had so many freckles that Erskine wondered if she might have stolen some from other children.”

“I didn't want my epitaph to be "She Played It Safe.”

“We don't wanta lose that little baby. Miss Hazel Marie might think she don't want it, but she do. If she lose it, she be worse upset than if she don't. When the Lord send a baby, he send the wantin', too.”