George Strait’s

A MOTHER’S QUIET RETURN: Thirty-nine years is a long time to carry silence. When Norma Strait stepped through the gates of that small cemetery in San Marcos, Texas, time seemed to fold back on itself. The autumn air was still, touched by that tender October glow her daughter once adored. In her hand, a small bouquet of wildflowers — fragile, trembling — and a photograph worn soft by love and years.

Thirty-nine years is a long time to carry silence. But for Norma Strait, the wife...