Jayber Crow, 2nd quote

"This grief had something in it of generosity, some nearness to joy. In a strange way it added to me what I had lost. I saw that, for me, this country would always be populated with presences and absences, presences of absences, the living and the dead. The world as it is would always be a reminder of the world that was, and of the world that is to come." 

~ Jayber Crow

Changes: Jayber Crow, first quote

Across 1/2 an acre of field from the home place, an old high school building decomposes like some ancient ruin. The school's chimney is visible on the viewer's right. This school's last graduating class included my mother. 

Quote from Wendell Berry's Jayber Crow