It struck me that Anna’s life was full of people, mostly men, who had loved her deeply, but who had let her down or hurt her. As she’d told me their stories, I had assumed she’d cut them out of her life, been as savage as I was to the people that hurt me. But I was wrong. She had forgiven them all, both for being what they were and for what they’d done. She had woven her family and her tribe back together. She had a lasting impact on people, even on those who had gone their own way. Bernt had cared for those ducklings, and had come back to tell her.
