Intra Muros

Far from home and weakened by weeks of fever, the narrator lies alone in a modest upstairs room in Kentville, her only view a stained‑glass window that looks out onto a quiet street. The long, lonely days are filled with a desperate longing for familiar hands and voices that cannot come, while ordinary care is scarce and her strength ebbs. In the quiet of that recessed space she turns inward, offering a prayer for Christ’s presence to fill the void left by absent friends and family.

The answer arrives not as a miracle of the body but as a calm that settles over her like a soft blanket. An inexplicable peace washes away anxiety, and she feels an unseen but tender support—“the Everlasting Arms”—lifting her spirit as a child rests in a mother’s embrace. The experience hints at a deeper connection between the mortal and the divine, suggesting that even in the darkest hours there is a comforting doorway to a life beyond the grave.