Gentle Hearts
Copyright© 2024 by Bondi Beach
Chapter 4: The Photograph
IT WAS TIME. I brought the photograph out from where I’d put it away when Sophie first fell ill. Sophie and young Erin, hand-in-hand, in the garden of the little beach house we rented so many summers ago, soft sunlight on the leaves of the tree behind them and in their hair.
Erin, behind me, put her arms around my middle. She kissed my cheek and rested her chin on my shoulder. Her voice was a whisper, but I heard her words and they filled my heart.
“I love you, Dad. I love Mom, too.”
On the sofa, Diana smiled through her tears. I turned the frame so it was easy to read the title I’d penciled in under the image.
“Gentle Hearts.”
Acknowledgements
The cover image of Rodin’s “The Kiss” is derived from a photograph by Tylwyth Eldar (2019) and is used according to license. Use of this image does not represent any endorsement of this story or its author by Tylwyth Eldar. The image does not represent any of the characters in this story.
I don’t remember how I found it, but the story title is from Dante’s La Vita Nuova (c. 1283), Amore e ‘l cor gentil sono una cosa, “Love and a gentle heart are but one thing.”
