examples – 31 – coming home

And now she appears before me: the little girl running up the steep Grande Rue toward Guissebonne, heading for the Müllerhaus. When her gaze falls on the weathered face of Jesus, carved from yellow sandstone and set into the wall of the house, she hastily crosses herself three times and keeps running. The color of her home was soft yellow. She was a sensitive, resilient, and strong girl who felt at home among the miners in Guissebonne.

As I stand on the Grande Rue in November 2019, I see a little Bolognese dog in a neighbor’s window—the Bichon d’Italie—looking at me. Its ears, with their silky fur, flutter slightly in the wind.