“Polly ended her lesson with the words she lived by: man is tender by nature, the rest is invented. Everyone applauded, even Bernice who was relieved that it was finally over.”

“Tal was looking at Hank when he said, "Just a moment. I want to hear it one more time."As they watched, Bernice found her way to Hank and Mary. She began to week openly, and spoke some quiet but impassioned words to them. Hank and Mary listened, as did the others nearby, and as they listened, they began to smile. They put their arms around her, they told her about Jesus, and then they began to weep as well. Finally, as the saints were gathered and Bernice was surrounded with loving arms, Hank said the words, "Let's pray...”

“When is a night over? Is it the start of sunrise or the end of it? Is it when you finally go to sleep or simply realize that you have to? When the club closes or when you everyone leaves?"It's over when you decide it's over," she says. "When you call it a night. The rest is just a matter of where the sun is in the sky.”

“The measure of a man, she said finally, is not the words that mark his end, but everything he’s done since his beginning.”

“The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship”

“Your mother won a special reward," she told me, "because everyone had a head in her pictures. We all applauded.”