Shirley Blythe leaned against the rough wooden porch pillar and looked out at the fields covered in summer blooms. The sun was barely peeking up over the distant sandstone cliffs. In a few minutes, the babies would awaken for their morning feeding, but for now, he had a little time to think and ponder.
The twins had been born in mid-April, two tiny bundles of joy and sweetness. The first time he held them in his arms, Shirley felt a love and protection fiercer than anything he'd ever experienced before. He knew he would give his life for them in a heartbeat, and he no longer wondered at Cecily's courage in knowing she was facing death to bring them life. She had only lived a few hours after their birth, but that was long enough for her to gaze at them and marvel. Shirley had been beside her as she breathed her last, and she drifted off to her eternal sleep with his name on her lips and a smile on her face.
Left to himself, Shirley might have lost himself in grief, but Joshua Matthew Blythe and Joanna Margaret Blythe kept him sane and steady. Davy Keith had written during the winter that he wanted to move out west near Dora's family, as he'd heard that the farming was better out there. He offered to sell Green Gables to Shirley, and Shirley, after discussing it with Cecily, took him up on it.
Hence it was, that a few weeks after Cecily's funeral, Shirley had packed up bag and baggage and moved himself and his children back to the Island, and into Green Gables. He took up farming full-time, as well as continuing with his architectural goals through long-distance communications. Mainly he focused on raising his children, wanting them to be happy and healthy, and to never forget the mother who loved them enough to die for them before she even knew them.
As for himself, he mourned and grieved for his love, but knew that he would see her again someday, and determined to live while he was on earth in a manner that she might not be ashamed of him when they met again in heaven. And so part of his daily routine now was this, coming outside at dawn to watch the sunrise and thank God for His mercy and grace.
As the sun moved fully over the horizon, Shirley nodded at the sky. He let the warmth of the rays soak into his skin for just a moment, and then turned and went back inside, to take up his load and start another day.
The End