I'd had my share of rain. My mother's illness ... had weighed on me, but the years before had been heavy, too. I was only twenty eight.

More and more I find myself at a loss for words and didn't want to hear other people talking either. Their conversations seemed false and empty. I preferred to look at the sea, which said nothing and never made you feel alone.

I would gladly have climbed out of my skin and into his that night, because I believed that was what love meant.

I'd had my share of rain. My mother's illness ... had weighed on me, but the years before had been heavy, too. I was only twenty eight.

I'd never met anyone so vibrant or alive. He moved like light.

Not everyone out in a storm wants to be saved

To marry was to say you believed in the future and in the past, too-that history and tradition and hope could stay knit together to hold you up.