Chapter 8: Reuben
Seventeen-year-old Jerusha stood in front of her mirror. The black dress was simple and severe, and yet it couldn’t hide the lovely young woman she had become. Even in her sadness, her face shone.
Outside her bedroom, a plain wooden coffin stood in a room that had been stripped of all furniture. In the coffin lay her beloved grossmudder, Hannah. Hours after her death, Jerusha and her mother had carefully washed Hannah’s body and then dressed her in the plain white dress Hannah had worn on her wedding day.
Even in death, Grandmother’s face was serene and gentle, and somehow she looked younger than the years that had finally taken her. When the family learned Hannah was dying of cancer, they began preparations for this day. Two days before her death, Jerusha’s father mad
