As the years passed, Margaret’s body weakened, but her spirit remained fierce. She spent her mornings on the porch, tea in hand, watching Clara and Evan walk through the fields with the animals. The sanctuary’s laughter reached her window like music.
At the entrance of the Willow Sanctuary, a bronze plaque was placed in her honor: “For every child and every creature who was ever told they were unwanted — you are loved here.”
Every year on her birthday, Clara places a single white rose beneath that plaque and whispers, “Thank you for choosing love.”
Because Margaret Hayes had proven something simple and eternal — that love, when chosen freely, doesn’t fade with age or death. It multiplies, quietly and endlessly, leaving the world softer than it was before.
