Riza Gallagher, running from her past with her young son meets and marries a Virginia State Trooper and Born Again Christian, Valjean Roland, who adopts her son. She was, like many of us, a doubter, but the day has come when Valjean has been killed in the line of duty. She is standing at his coffin, alone. I have been murmuring this prayer for a friend myself, of late.
RIZA
I’ve spent the last two days reading the Bible, all of it. I would so love to see what you saw and hear what you heard! But I need your voice reading it to me.
Thank you for making Jesse such a good man. What did the Bible say, the mustard seed...it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs. It shoots great branches so that all the fowl of the air can lodge under it. That’s what you did for Jesse.
And for me. You have redeemed me. You have made me whole. When I was hungry, you gave me meat. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in! Oh, Val! Val! Thank you! Thank you for your love! I may never be as good as you and Jesse, but you healed me. You touched me! I have to be the one to do this. I have to let you go, my Darling. “I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine!”
(She closes the lid of the coffin. She cries up to the skies.)
Please, please, please, make it all true! Give him Paradise! Give him eternal life! Let me see him again someday! Make everything he believed in be true!
Amen!
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