Winter Garden

by Kristin Hannah

But how could she lose him? He was her level ground, her North Star. The one person who was always waiting for her to come home.

do not know what to do now,” Vera says. She feels disconnected from herself, from her own life. “I have been waiting for you to ask me this,” Mama says. “You both have been waiting. Hoping. Now you know: this is our life. Our Petya will not come back. This is who we are now.” “What does that mean?” asks Olga. “Live,” Mama says quietly.

“He loved you two more than his words, more than his own breath. That will never die.”

“To lose love is a terrible thing,” Mom said softly. “But to turn away from it is unbearable. Will you spend the rest of your life replaying it in your head? Wondering if you walked away too soon or too easily? Or if you’ll ever love anyone that deeply again?”

love you and I miss you and I hope to hell I’m not too late because I want to grow old with the man I was young with. With you.”

Her mother was a lioness. A warrior. A woman who’d chosen a life of hell for herself because she wanted to give up and didn’t know how.

If there was one thing she’d learned in all of this, it was that life—and love—can be gone any second. When you had it, you needed to hang on with all your strength and savor every second.

So many people recommended this book to me over the past few months- I totally regret not taking their advice soon! Once I started I couldn't put it down!

It was the beginning of this new life, the time when I finally learned that with love comes forgiveness.