The only person who have Toshiko any real comfort was Father Kleinsgorge, who continued calling on her in Koi. He was clearly bent on converting her. The confident logic of his instruction did little to convince her, for she could not accept the idea that a God who had snatched away her parents and put her through such hideous trials was loving a merciful. She was, however, warmed and healed by the priest’s faithfulness to her, for it was obvious that he, too, was weak and in pain, yet he walked great distances to see her.
Her house stood by a cliff, on which there was a grove of bamboo. One morning, she stepped out of the house, and the sun’s rays glistening on the minnowlike leaves of the bamboo trees took her breath away. She felt an astonishing burst of joy – the first she had experienced in as long as she could remember. She heard herself reciting the Lord’s Prayer.
In September, she was baptized. Father Kleinsorge was in the hospital in Tokyo, so Father Cieslik officiated.
Hiroshima by John Hersey. Vintage Books. 1989. p.119, 120
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