I felt the weight of her disappointment as if she had been standing in front of me, screaming at me. It would’ve been easier to take a punch than to read those words. The fact thatshe left this world thinking she was a coward and had betrayed her granddaughter gutted me.
27-Melanie
I sat in Gram’s bedroom and traced the patterns in her quilt. It was an ugly old thing, and according to her, it was her one and only attempt at making a quilt. My lips curved into a small smile when I remembered her telling me the story.
“My ex-husband wanted a good housewife and instead he got me.” Gram laughed and slapped her knee, “that man expected me to be able to cook, sew, garden, and host a hell of a dinner party. So, imagine his surprise when it turned out the only kind of party I could successfully host was a poker night, where I would kick all of his friend’s asses, double my weekly allowance, and be the town gossips favorite subject. One night he was complaining about how I needed to be more domesticated… so I made this ugly thing, and he hated it.”
It was her favorite blanket.
I sighed, wandered over to her vanity, and slowly ran my finger over the different perfume bottles. She had three vintage perfume bottles lined up on top of a gold plated mirror tray with matching brushes and a matching glass jewelry box. They’d been the only wedding gift she’d kept.
“She would want you to have those.” My mother said softly from the doorway. “You used to beg her to brush your hair with those old brushes.” She smiled fondly at me.
“I remember…” I murmured. She had always humored my demands.
“Do you remember when that guy she was dating tried tell her that she spoiled us too much?” Kyle stepped out from behind our mom and sat down on the bed with a mischievous smirk.
“Yes!” I gasped. “She’d been seeing him for like six months or something… but as soon as he said that she told him it was time for him to head on out, and he never came around again.”
“She ended things with him that same day.” Mom chimed in. “She called me after you kids left to let me know what had happened and I remember being shocked that she had left him over one mistake. ‘Felicity, any man that believes you can spoil a child just by giving them attention and affection isn’t going to be a good partner.’ And when she put it that way… I couldn’t find fault with her logic. She wasn’t spending outrageous money or letting you get away with bad things, she was brushing your hair.”
“He was a weird old dude anyways.” Kyle scoffed.
“I don’t remember much about him…” I admitted.
“Well, I was like ten or eleven, so you must’ve been like eight.” He shrugged, “he collected stamps… that was his big hobby and the only thing he ever tried talking about with us… it was weird.”
“Stamps are… okay.” I winced at how lame my own words sounded.
“Sure, but not to an eleven year old.” He chuckled.
We all fell into a comfortable silence while Kyle sorted through some old postcards my grandmother kept in her bedside table, and I sorted through her jewelry box with my mother. Every now and then, one of us would show an item to the others, but mostly we just sat in one of the spaces where we all felt her presence.
“Did either of you open your letters?” My mother asked without looking up from the jewelry in her hands.
“No?” I said slowly.
“I did.” Kyle looked surprised. “Why not?”
“I’m not ready.” I mumbled.
“That’s okay.” My mother said quickly. Too quickly.
“Why?” I asked, suspiciously.
“I… I’m not sure if I should say anything before you’ve read your own.” She sighed. “I think it’s best if we discuss the letters once we’ve all read ours.”
“Okay…” I eyed her and crossed my arms. “Is it something bad?”
“Melanie…” My mother’s tone warned me to stop pushing.
“Fine.” I huffed. “I will read them tonight and then tomorrow you’ll tell me what the last two minutes have been about.”
She nodded and held up one of Gram's giant, bauble earrings. “I can’t believe her ear lobes didn’t touch her shoulders.” She joked.
“I can’t believe she actually liked them.” I replied.
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