Chapter 8 — Why Samuel Sent the Postcard
Margaret still had one question.
“Why did you write that postcard?”
Samuel remembered immediately.
I’M SORRY. IT WAS BETTER THIS WAY.
Margaret had interpreted it for decades as a confession.
Samuel shook his head.
“It wasn’t.”
When Robert forced him to leave, Samuel moved in with an uncle in Ohio.
He was furious.
Humiliated.
He wanted to write Margaret the entire truth.
Then he thought about Peter.
At the time, Samuel still believed Peter was innocent too.
He assumed the missing money might have been a bookkeeping mistake.
And he believed exposing Robert’s accusation would split the Ellis family.
So Samuel wrote the vaguest message possible.
“I was apologizing for disappearing.”
Margaret stared.
“What did ‘better this way’ mean?”
Samuel smiled sadly.
“Your father told me if I stayed, the police would come.”
He thought leaving quietly would prevent younger children from being dragged into an ugly investigation.
“I was seventeen.”
He shrugged.
“It sounded logical for about fifteen minutes.”
Margaret laughed through tears.
Then started crying harder.
“I hated you.”
Samuel nodded.
“I figured.”
“I thought you took things from us and ran.”
“I know.”
“Why nominate me after all that?”
Samuel looked surprised.
“Because you didn’t do any of it.”
Margaret went quiet.
Samuel had followed her community work through newspaper articles and local newsletters.
Margaret ran literacy programs.
Organized winter clothing drives.
Helped open a weekend food pantry.
Samuel knew exactly where her instinct to help people came from.
Even as a teenager, Margaret had been the person who noticed when somebody sat alone.
“I didn’t need you to know I nominated you,” Samuel said.
“I just wanted the committee to know why you deserved the award.”