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She stopped at Ally’s chair. Her daughter glanced at her, a hint of defiance in her stare. “I get it,” she informed her. “I’m not happy that you did it, but I get it and I pro
bably would have done the same thing if my mom had cancer.”
Ally slid back almost into Sophie. She wrapped her arms around her mother and cried. “I had to be here Mom.”
Sophie comforted her. “You can cry this one time then no more. I need you to be strong.”
Mother and daughter kissed then Ally sat down. Heath passed Joshua to Brad Russack who was always willing to take his great-grandson.
“Mom, are you okay?”
“I will be,” she promised him.
He sat down, and she leaned over Brad and kissed his cheek then Maria’s too who patted her hand as she walked around the table to where her father was sitting.
“All better?” He asked.
“No but I understand why you did what you did now. I don’t agree with it, but I get it.”
“It won’t be the first time you didn’t agree with me,” he informed her. His expression was uncompromising.
She shook her head at him. “Are you going to mass with us tomorrow?”
“I wasn’t given a choice by Brad or your mother, thank you very much.”
He tucked his napkin into the belt of his pants, something he always did. His white hair was a tumbled mess on his head like he had been running his hands through it. Her father was in desperate need of a haircut. His jaw was covered in fine whiskers. She realized that he always looked like he needed a shave. The whiskers on his face grew that quick.
Sophie leaned over him and kissed his head. “Love you, Daddy,” she whispered, and she thought he was going to cry. Her father wrapped his arm around her slender waist and held onto her.
When Duke could speak, he responded with a, “Ditto, kiddo.”
“Paddy told me the church was going to catch on fire,” she teased him to lighten the mood a little.
“When did you see Father Paddy?” Her mother asked.
She took her seat by her mother and Josh. She smiled at her. “I went over there before coming home. He and I had a nice talk. Prayed a little. He gave me an impromptu absolution. I have a few Our Father’s and Hail Mary’s to say.”
“I’ll bet more than a few,” her brother teased her from down at his end of the table.
“You’re no saint, Ross Ward.”
He laughed at her. “I’m not but I sure try to be and when I’m not I go to confession.”
“I know, that’s what Paddy said.”
Ross shook his head at her. “So, spill it. What’s the plan?”
“Start eating,” she declared. “I’ll talk.”
She watched everyone fill their plates with pizza bought at a local pizzeria by Roman and Kai. Her young nephews were taking theirs to the garage, so they could watch television. They kissed her cheek before making their exit. She hadn’t seen them since Labor Day and she realized how much she had missed them.
They needed to make more of an effort to be a family, of that she was sure if nothing else in this craziness she called her life. Sophie wanted to surround herself with her family. This one life she was given was too critical to ignore the little, things that might seem insignificant but were most important and were most precious to her.
“I have Stage II ER/PR positive.” She could see like Kai no one knew that meant. “My cancer is reactive to estrogen and progesterone. That is good.”
“Why is that good?” Heath asked.
“They know what’s causing it. How to treat it. It’s not aggressive. It’s spread to my lymph node because I’ve had it for a while.”
