Tag: ts4

Last Farewells to Gram

It’s the day of her funeral and Mom made sure we would send her off properly, with color and flowers, just like she would have wanted, just as she lived.

Mom is too shaken up to give the eulogy, so I step up to the altar for her. And I speak about Gram, about how important she was to me, to Noland and Miranda, to mom, to my grandmothers, including grandma Justine, who she adopted as her own daughter. 

I remind everybody how she selflessly raised not only her own children but her two youngest sisters, on her own, when great-great-grandmother Ariana died.

The people who knew her best came today, including Mom’s childhood friends Marie, and Charlotte and Shanna, with their youngest kid. And some people in the back, two strange women I don’t recognize and who look incredibly snob. But Mom says they belong here.

Empty

The house feels quiet and just awfully wrong now. This first night I sleep in the bed that was mine again, it still feels like Gram is right there.

The dirty clothes pile up. Every day I make a point to make it to the shower, because the temptation is strong to just stay under the blankets.

The Restaurant

It’s a family outing! Gram, my parents, my siblings and I all meet up at the newest restaurant in Oasis Springs, already decorated for the upcoming Romance Day. It shows off an impressive menu, including quite a few dishes from Selvadorada that only mom and I dare touch.

The food is pretty good, the moment is amazing, and to Mom’s surprise and delight, we run into her friend Marie and her youngest kid, who’s about the twins’ age. She looks much nicer than the only one of Charlotte and Shanna’s kids I know, whatever her name is.

Making Up

“Hannah, do you have a minute?”

She looks nervous and doesn’t really wait for me to confirm I have a minute. Before I’ve even dropped my tools, she continues.

“You think we’re hiding something because we don’t trust you to know. But it’s not that!”

“Gram…”

“Let me finish. It’s old stories. We all learned them, we all lived by them, me and the generations before me. But once she knows about it, every heir is trapped. Every decision she makes is tainted.”

“Is it really that bad?”

“You’re free if you don’t know. You, and your children, too. And I don’t want to be the one to take that away from you.”

And she really looks in pain. And you know what, I don’t want to be mad at her. So I reassure her. It’s okay. I don’t expect her to tell me more.

I’ll just have to learn on my own.

Wedge

“No, Mom, Gram and I are not mad at each other.”

“She said you’re barely speaking!”

“She’s the one who doesn’t want to speak.”

“…”

“Look we’re just not doing everything together. No one’s mad.”

“Okay, Hannah. Just… Remember Naomi is doing her best. She lived through a lot.”

“Mom, she said… Do you think you could…”

“I have to go, Hannah. Be kind to grandma please.”