Paula M Donson

This Kind of Courage Paula M Donson

It was late evening, the night before her wedding, and all that Anna knew as she lay in her bed was that she would not be at the altar the next morning. Her cloth bag was packed and she thought of how hard it would be to cross the river in darkness later that night, how the horse might stumble, and how the market traders who would guide her might not come through the next morning. But she forced her mind to focus instead on how she would never marry a man she did not love, for that would be like choosing death, when life had so much to offer. She would have to sacrifice everything she treasured to escape a life that promised nothing. She would need to trade everything for peace, and the freedom to build a life that would give her what her mind and heart needed. She left the western borderlands of Russia that night never to return. It was only 50 years after the Tsar's edict freed the serfs - her parents and grandparents - leaving them destitute and still bound to the land. What she never expected to happen did happen, and it gave her a life that, back then, she could not imagine. It was "This Kind of Courage" that Anna maintained, and "This Kind of Courage" that she passed on to others.