Those sick pale faces were bright with the dawn of a new future, of a full resurrection into a new life. They were renewed by love…
The epilogue’s light is deliberate after so much darkness. “Resurrection” alludes to the Gospel Sonia read, tying hope to earlier grace. The faces are still “pale,” honest about cost, but now turned toward morning. Love is named not as sentiment, but as renewing force. It also honors Sonia’s endurance; her compassion was never naïve. For readers, this is permission to imagine futures after failure. The sentence promises that beginnings can follow endings.