He could almost feel her smile coming over the line. “I went because I was afraid there wouldn’t be anyone there to mourn her. It was presumptuous, I know.”
This woman. He’d never met anyone like her. He didn’t understand why she would care about the funeral for a woman she’d never known. “Tell me about her services.”
“What would you like to know?”
“Whatever you can tell me. How many attended? Did you talk to anyone? If so, what did they have to say?”
Maisy continued speaking for several minutes, filling in details that utterly shocked him. His mother was loved, treasured, an active participant in her sobriety, helping others obtain the same sense of peace she’d found. He couldn’t have been more shocked if Michelle had walked through the front door and stood directly in front of him.
“Pastor Jameson, the minister who led the celebration of life, knew her well and was clearly fond of her. Several people fromher AA group spoke.” She repeated what Sandy and Gwen had shared and the people she’d met later at the wake. “Grams decided we should attend that afterward.” Maisy paused and laughed softly. “She’s always on the lookout for good funeral recipes.”
“What the…?”
“Never mind, it isn’t important.”
“So, it was your grandmother who went with you?” He reached for the sympathy card and read the name: “Eileen Gallagher.”
“That’s her. The luncheon was held in the church basement and every table was filled. Your mother had quite an impact on the community and her church. I so wish you had been there, Chase. It seems your mother was an amazing woman.”
Chase felt sick at heart. “Tell me more.”
“In the eulogy, Pastor Jameson quoted a verse from the book of Joel. I wish I could remember it verbatim. It’s the part that says God would restore the years the locusts had eaten.”
“Locusts? What has that got to do with anything?” He was oblivious to any connection between his mother’s life and pesky bugs.
“From everything you told me, your mother had wasted years drowning herself in alcohol. Once she had sobriety, she became a new woman, and the years lost in addiction were restored tenfold in the help, inspiration, and charity work she did for others. She was deeply loved.”
Chase hardly knew what to think. “That’s apparent from the cards I read.”
He would never have known any of this if not for Maisy, he understood. The sense of loss was profound. His mind whirledwith regret. Michelle had tried to reach him by phone several times in the last year. He refused her calls at the office, and he’d blocked her from his personal cell phone and social media. When she’d written, he’d tossed her letters, refusing to read them. After all her attempts came silence, a silence he welcomed, wanting nothing more to do with her.
“Chase?”
“Sorry,” he said, when he realized his silence had dragged on. “Thank you, Maisy. I apologize for yelling at you.”
“No apology necessary. By the way…”
“Yes?”
“Did you ever pay it forward like I asked?”
“Not yet,” he said, grinning now. “But I have an idea of what I’m going to do. I figured the check I wrote to the country club wasn’t what you had in mind. Am I right?”
“Yes. But you say you have an idea?”
“I do.”
“Tell me,” she urged. “I want to hear about it.”
He hesitated and knew this was not the time or the place. “I will after I’ve followed through,” he promised.
“Soon, though, right?” She sounded both pleased and anxious.
“Soon,” he reiterated. And when she did hear, it would be big.
Chapter Ten
Chase hung up the phone and relaxed against the sofa where he sat. The smile refused to leave his face. He sobered up quickly as soon as it hit him that against his better judgment, he’d called Maisy. He’d repeatedly told himself it would be pointless, that he had no reason to speak to her again, and yet he had.
