A Severe Mercy: A Story of Faith, Tragedy and Triumph

A few months have passed, and Van is on a destroyer in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii. Van has recently received a message that Davy has come to visit and arranges for her to stay with some local friends, but she makes her way onto a boat that she knows will pass by Van’s ship, and the two see each other as their ships pass each other. Van admits that he is an agnostic (as is Davy); though he determines to one day give Christianity another look since so many intelligent people seem to have given it credence, he relates how they might well be called theists—“A creator seemed necessary, a creator with an immense intelligence embracing order” (60)—while not ascribing to any creed or religion.

Months pass, and Davy has relocated to Hawaii to be close to Van, but on the morning of December 7, the attack on Pearl Harbors devastates the islands. The couple spends the rest of the war in Hawaii, and at the end of the war, they immediately set off for Florida to pick back up where they had started four years prior. Less than two weeks later, they arrive in Miami and purchase a boat they name Gull, living aboard it on the ocean and picking up odd jobs to fund their newfound lifestyle.