Although Steve and I read parallel for hours during our courtship and marriage and would often read passages aloud to each other, it was not unitl Steve had cancer that I began to read whole books to him. It became a regular practice pretty early in and by the last days, and especially the last nights I read aloud to Steve for hours. Steve said that the most disturbing part about the demise was that anxiety would creep in because he could not remember who he was, or even what he held dear. And that as soon as I would start reading, it would all come back to him, he would remember and would feel sustained.
Each year at our little school we read one of George Macdonald’s fairy tales together during our ‘Morning Time.’ Steve’s first favorite was The Golden Key. His last favorite was At the Back of the North Wind. What was intriguing to me about reading At the Back of the North Wind was how much more Steve resonated with it than I did . He would ask for me to reread portions and would laugh knowingly and say things like, “Yes, that is so true,” or “Yes, that is how it is.”
Quotes from our favorite George Macdonald books:
“I’ve been thinking about it a great deal, and it seems to me that although one sixpence is as good as another sixpence, not twenty lambs would do instead of one sheep whose face you knew. Somehow, when once you’ve looked into anybody’s eyes, right deep down into them, I mean, nobody will do for that one anymore. Nobody, ever so beautiful or so good, will make up for that one going out of sight.”
From At the Back of the North Wind
“...though I cannot promise to take you home," said North Wind, as she sank nearer and nearer to the tops of the houses, "I can promise you it will be all right in the end. You will get home somehow.”
“Only he knew that to be left alone is not always to be forsaken.”
“Then the Old Man of the Earth stooped over the floor of the cave, raised a huge stone from it, and left it leaning. It disclosed a great hole that went plumb-down. “That is the way," he said.
"But there are no stairs."
“You must throw yourself in. There is no other way.” The Golden Key
“You have tasted of death now,” said the old man. “Is it good?”
“It is good,” said Mossy. “It is better than life.”
“No,” said the old man: “it is only more life.” The Golden Key