“Ma’am, I want to really study the Bible.” She threw herself into her studies, and within a few years, she could quote scripture better than the local pastor.
She loved the history and the moral lessons of her faith. Their little house had a low porch, and Grace would often watch the local students heading to the high school. She eventually befriended a boy named Luke, who became a loyal friend.
Luke and his friends would sometimes stop by the yard, and they’d help Grace with the garden. At the same time, she was a sponge for knowledge, reading every book she could get her hands on. Grace became not just well-educated, but a person who truly lived by her principles.
Mrs. Higgins raised her with dignity. As Grace grew older, her beauty became the talk of the town. People often remarked that she had a “classic, timeless look.”
She was modest and kept to herself, rarely venturing far from home. By then, Mrs. Higgins was quite frail and couldn’t get around much, but the townspeople made sure they were looked after. There was a wealthy man in the county, Mr. Sterling, who owned a large construction firm, and one day he came by to suggest a match between Grace and his son.
But Mrs. Higgins politely declined, saying, “Grace is the light of my life, and she’ll choose her own path.” Mr. Sterling, a man who respected boundaries, nodded and left. At the time, Grace was tutoring local children in reading, and there was one young man who would often linger near the house just to hear her voice.
He tried to catch a glimpse of her several times, but she was always focused on her work. Over time, he developed a deep, quiet affection for her. This feeling changed him; he started attending church regularly and working harder at his job.
He wanted to ask her out, but he felt he wasn’t in her league. As the town’s annual summer festival approached, Grace told Mrs. Higgins, “I’m going to help with the bake sale all week. I’ll be up early, but if I oversleep because of these headaches I’ve been having, please wake me.”
On the first day of the festival, the town received shocking news: Grace had passed away suddenly in her sleep. The young man who admired her felt like the world had stopped. He couldn’t believe it. “I just saw her yesterday,” he told himself. “She was fine, talking about the festival.”
When he joined the small crowd outside her house, the grim reality set in. Grace was gone. He wanted to break down right there, but he had no official tie to her, no right to grieve openly as anything more than a neighbor.
The town gathered for a quiet funeral, but the cause of death remained a mystery—likely a sudden heart condition. Mrs. Higgins was inconsolable, telling everyone that Grace was the purest soul she had ever known.
The neighbors agreed. “She was a good girl,” they said. The young man, Luke, was left with nothing but his memories. He thought, “She’s gone, and I never even told her how I felt. If I had just spoken up, maybe things would be different.”
Strangely, after the burial, Luke began visiting the cemetery every evening. That’s when he noticed the disturbing behavior of the local strays. Every night, a pack of dogs would gather at Grace’s plot, growling and pawing at the dirt.
He wondered, “Why her grave?” There were dozens of other plots, but the dogs focused solely on hers. Every day, he would chase them away and tidy the site. The dogs were unusually aggressive, and at times, a strange, heavy scent seemed to hang in the air around the disturbed earth.
Luke couldn’t sleep. He’d go to the cemetery before dawn, haunted by the “what ifs.” “If I had one more chance to talk to her, would our story have ended this way?”
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