Dovetail

by Karen McQuestion

“The sides of the hope chest are connected using dovetail joints. The edges are cut in a pattern, so one side slides into the other. Wide tails and narrow pins are what they’re called. It works almost like this.” He clasped his hands together, fingers interwoven. “Once the two pieces are glued together, the place where they’re joined is stronger than the wood itself. Your mother always thought it was perfect for a hope chest, because when a couple is married, they are stronger together than they were when separate.” As

dovetail joint can stand the test of time.”

“Human beings are much more complex than one event that happened on one day in a very long life.”

Babies were born and grew up, seemingly overnight. And then, in the blink of an eye, those babies were married grown-ups announcing that they were expecting babies of their own. No one had warned her how fast it all would go.

“The world is for the young.” Pearl wasn’t quite sure if she’d heard that expression somewhere or come up with it on her own, but she did know the truth of it. She was young once, with all sorts of wonderful possibilities ahead of her. Now the only thing she had left was this young man, her grandson. If she was going to make things right, it would fall to him.

John’s mother often said the most successful people lived a life of passion and service to others, something he hadn’t quite fully grasped until that moment.

He’d always thought the two concepts were at odds. Following one’s passion was self-serving. How could you do that and live a life of service to others? He saw now that Alice embodied both by bringing passion and service to everything she did. No task was too menial, no person too unimportant, no place too dreary for her enthusiasm and good cheer. She brought a handful of sunshine everywhere she went.

She always had to shine a light on herself because she didn’t understand how to light herself from within.