The Voice Which Calls

Elmo and Edna continued to surprise me as I grew to know the brother and sister better. We’d invited them to dinner one evening, and as I spooned a generous helping of the chicken casserole I’d made onto her plate, Edna said, “We were poor when we were growing up; we would go weeks without a dollar in the house. Even so, mother told me to always give something—whether it was something I’d made or as little as a penny. She said it wasn’t the amount you gave, it was how you gave it.”

Like Edna,...