Why We Try

A gentle miracle. A painter who listens. A life unfinished.

Robert Hale lives a quiet life in St. Augustine, Florida-until the day he begins a portrait he cannot explain. The strokes come unbidden. The face forms itself. And when he steps back, he feels someone looking through his eyes from the world inside the canvas.

Her name is Madeleine.

She lived and died in Paris in 1668, tended in her final hours by a healer who whispered a blessing of hope over her fading breath-a promise that her life was not finished. Centuries later, Robert's art becomes the doorway that allows her to answer that blessing.

Madeleine awakens slowly, softly, as if learning daylight again.
She speaks. She listens. She feels.
Alive not in flesh, but in presence.

Together, Robert and Madeleine discover a connection without fear or darkness-
a bond shaped by wonder, kindness, and second chances.
As she learns the world through his eyes, he learns life anew through hers.

WHY WE TRY is a tender, luminous novel about art, hope, and the quiet ways love crosses the boundaries of time.
Not every life ends when it appears to.
Some stories simply pause, waiting for the moment the heart is ready to hear them again.