Searching for Peace (COASTAL HOPE) by Jessica Ashley EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Jessica Ashley
- Language: English
- Genre: contemporary romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
Elijah
I hate funerals.
As an Army Ranger, I’ve unfortunately attended my fair share, and
if I can go the rest of my life without seeing another flag-draped coffin,
I’d be more than happy.
Then again, the dark wooden box before me is adorned with flowers
rather than red, white, and blue. Still, it doesn’t make it any easier. In a lot
of ways, this might be even harder. After all, Edna wasn’t a soldier on the
battlefield. She was an elderly woman—a grandmother who’d been in her
home.
The lump in my throat grows.
An aged woman smiles back at me from a large, framed photograph, her
silver hair pulled up in a bun, her green eyes bright with joy. She looks so
happy, so completely thrilled to be staring back at whoever took that
photograph.
All I feel is pain.
Grief.
We may not have been family by blood, and I may not have known her
more than a few years, but Edna Montgomery was as good a woman as they
come. After the first time I helped her carry groceries into her house, she’d
practically adopted me as a surrogate grandson. I’d been surly when we first
met, jaded by the horrors I’d seen on deployment, and she’d refused to let
me continue to be bitter.
I spent three Easters, Thanksgivings, and Christmas afternoons with her.
We’d sipped lemonade on her porch on lazy Sunday afternoons when I
didn’t have to work, and I’d listened to her stories about her late husband
and the joy he’d brought into her life before being stolen far too soon.
Now she’s gone. Heaven has gained an angel, but I lost mine.
“Mrs. Montgomery was a staple in this town,” Pastor Redding says
sadly as he grips each side of the podium, his own eyes misty. His wife, one
of Edna’s close friends, sniffles in a front pew. “She was a shining light, the
kindest woman any of us have ever met. She’d never met a stranger and
welcomed everyone as though they’d been a part of her life for as long as
anyone can remember.”
All around me, people cry. Mrs. McGinley—the town’s librarian and
Edna’s best friend—sniffs beside me. Reaching out, I cover her wrinkled
hand with mine. She sets her other one over it and leans against my
shoulder.
“Edna never had a negative thing to say about anyone, and I think we
can all agree that her s’more cookies were the best ones around.”
“Best in the world!” Michael, my co-worker and brother in everything
but blood, calls out.
People mutter in agreement. A few laugh softly. One woman lets out a
choked sob.
“I know we’re all hurting,” the pastor says, “but take solace in knowing
this is not the last time we will see our sister. For, one day, we will walk
alongside her in heaven.” He bows his head. “Let us pray. Dear God, thank
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