This morning I’m thumbing through a little book that dates back to 1896. Its German title translates to “Solace for Troubled Hearts.” It was my grandmother’s, and I can see by the worn brown-speckled cover that it was much used.

My grandmother did not have an easy life. She worked on a farm in Bavaria alongside her parents and several siblings. When she was old enough, she became a nurse in a hospital in the big city of Wiesbaden. She endured World Wars I and II. She met her husband, a handsome mounted patrolman, while working at the hospital. They say when you marry someone beautiful that you never have all of them; part of them belongs to the world. From what I understand, my grandfather spread himself around fairly well.

In my novel, “The Still Voice,” the main character’s mother Brigitte quotes from the Solace book now and again. On one particularly hard day, she reads this quote to her daughter, Sophia: “I will pray. God will give. From him, all things flow. Light and joy, solace and life, as though from a bountiful sea. I will pray. God will strengthen. Should I encounter stormy skies, prayer will still my soul. I will pray. God will save . . .”

Reading through this slender volume makes me feel closer to my grandmother, gone almost thirty years now. I often wonder which passages were her favorites and wish I shared her strong faith. It is sometimes hard to believe there is a God. Why would a God visit the scourge of cancer on this earth? Why would a God make the children in the slums of India and Africa suffer so?

There are too many things for which we have no answer. I do know that my beautiful pragmatic grandmother would not have tolerated these maudlin musings. She loved to laugh. She lived to the age of ninety-one. I’m sure she would say that her namesake granddaughter will, too.

I will pray. God will strengthen. Should I encounter stormy skies, prayer will still my soul.