Alina Stephanie

Jaime's Birthday Alina Stephanie

Julia is only six years old when the world is turned inside out by the death of her brother, Jaime. For the girl who spoke with the flowers, played games with the animals, and understood the whispers of the trees, the woods go suddenly and utterly silent. As an apathetic adolescent, Julia spends her days on the front porch, watching life pass her by. As a seminary student, Pastor Joe fell in love with a woman the world won't let him keep. Years later, he shares a porch swing with Julia - conversing, philosophizing, and when his heart can take it, reminiscing. Together, through their unconventional faith, they come to terms with a merciless world in which tragedy poisons the lives of innocent people. Decades pass. Julia has seen her own death coming, and spends her final front porch afternoons narrating her story as farewell to the world she is leaving behind, and the granddaughter sitting at her feet. As Pastor Joe's words once did for her, Julia's reflections remind us all that life marches on, "and the choice we make is whether to love it to the end." If more people were like her - the child who stared tragedy in the face and persevered; the adolescent who conquered anger and hatred within herself; the woman who reconciled the ugliness of humanity with the beauty - what a wonderful world it would be.