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Andrew paused.
“Still there, Boss?” Debbie asked when the pause grew.
“I should have taken better care of her.” His chest tightened as he thought of Nora falling, of the pain and fright she must have felt. It hurt him to think about. “I should have realized Nora and Lydia were both getting older. Taking care of that house alone is too much for them. They need more permanent help than just a lawn guy and help with the cleaning occasionally.”
“Nonsense,” Debbie said, her tone sharp enough to cut off Andrew’s pity party. “None of us ever knows when these things will happen. Nora hides any needs she has quite well and she wouldn’t let you dote on her. You had the sidewalks shoveled and driveway plowed by a service. Nora wouldn’t accept more than that. She would have scoffed at a full-time groundskeeper. We'll just set things up differently now that we know she needs more help. That’s all we can do.”
“Okay,” Andrew said, but he still felt the guilt.
His parents didn’t believe in hugs and kisses or giving encouragement. Growing up, no one other than Nora had told Andrew she was proud of him. She’d been the one to tell him to follow his dreams.
Andrew’s parents were concerned only for their reputation and accumulating wealth. And when his parents didn’t like the way things were going in Andrew’s life, they paid people to change things.
The last payoff, almost eight years before, had resulted in Andrew cutting all ties to his mother and father. But he still had Nora. She had always been there for him as he grew up and he thought of her more as a parent than he did his true mother or father.
“I’ll call you when I know something,” Andrew said.
“I’ll start arranging things from this end,” Debbie said. He knew Debbie likely had half of the items on her list completed as they spoke.
As he navigated the quick ride through downtown New Haven to the hospital, he thought of all his grandmother had done for him over the years. He had never really understood how she was so different. His mother was her daughter, but they were nothing alike.
When his parents didn’t bother to stay in the States for Christmas or summer breaks, Nora sent for him.
She brought him home from boarding school to her estate in Westbrook so often Andrew thought of her estate as his home. She was the one who stood up to his parents when he wanted to go to sports camp instead of the academic camp his parents had lined up.
Nora went to his graduation from high school, then college, and finally Yale Business School. Andrew’s parents did not.
She backed Andrew when he decided to go to Yale instead of working at his father’s marketing firm. And when his mother and father had finally breached all reasonable boundaries, trying to control who he loved and married, Nora cut ties with Andrew’s parents at the same time he did.
His parents wouldn’t be at the hospital for Nora today. In fact, they wouldn’t even be told Nora was injured.
It might seem cold to outsiders, but after what they’d done, there was no way he wanted them involved now.
Andrew pulled into the parking lot at Yale-New Haven Hospital and jogged across the covered walkway that connected the parking lot with the hospital building. He spotted Lydia at the front desk in the Emergency Room filling out paperwork.
“Lydia, where is she?”
Strain and worry lined Lydia’s face.
“They took her upstairs to x-ray, sweetheart, but the doctor is already fairly sure she’ll need surgery. If you sign here, I’ll finish her paperwork, and you can go on up and be with her.”
Andrew signed the paperwork, kissed Lydia on the cheek, then went to find the elevators to take him up to radiology. Lydia joined him twenty minutes later when he moved to the surgical waiting room. They settled in for a long wait while Nora’s hip was pinned back together.
By the time he left the hospital four hours later, Debbie had already researched the type of surgery Nora was undergoing and the aftercare that would be needed. She would have to spend some time in the hospital but Debbie had arranged for more help at the house to be sure Nora and Lydia wouldn’t want for anything.
For once in his life, the ridiculous amounts of money sitting in Andrew’s bank accounts would be put to good use.
A week later, Andrew had Nora settled back home with around-the-clock nurses and a physical therapist scheduled every second day to help with rehabilitation.
The clean nature of the break in her hip and the fact that Andrew was able to provide twenty-four hour in-home care meant that Nora avoided a stay in a rehabilitation center. He wasn’t sure she would have put up with one if the doctor had insisted. Nora might be loving and caring with him, but she could pitch a fit if things didn’t go her way.
Andrew hired a full-time groundskeeper and maintenance man. And he hired a cleaning service to take over the house cleaning and another service to deliver groceries twice a week. Lydia drew the line at letting him bring in someone else to cook.
“No one’s taking over my kitchen,” she had said firmly and Andrew decided the fight probably wasn’t worth having. Besides, he had a soft spot for Lydia’s cooking. He wasn’t sure he could give up the meals she stocked in his freezer on a regular basis.
He watched as Nora was settled into the hospital bed they’d had set up in a downstairs sitting room so she wouldn’t have to go up and down the stairs.
“We can have a lift put on the stairs eventually.”
