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“I’m glad you got her crochet bag back.Elise mentioned how determined she was to finish a baby blanket.”Maureen’s smile stretched across her face.“Such a lovely woman.I really enjoyed chatting with her last night and it looks like we all might be stranded—” A tear slid down Susan’s cheek, and the smile fell from Maureen’s face.“Is everything okay?”
“Yes.I mean…no.”Susan shook her head.“I’m sorry.This is all so…”
“Sit.”Maureen waved to the empty seat next to her.“Please.”
She waited until Susan was seated before she reached out and patted her hand.“If there’s anything I can—”
“She’s gone.”
Maureen froze.Something in Susan’s voice told her what she needed to know.Still, she asked, “Gone?You mean—”
“She passed away in her sleep last night.”
Her hand flew to her mouth.“But…I was…” Maureen couldn’t formulate the thoughts she needed to.“She seemed just fine.We had such a lovely conversation last night.”
Susan nodded.She gestured toward the front desk with her head.“They told me you sat with her most of the evening last night.”Susan shook her head and chuckled a little bit.“I thought she was in bed.She told me…”
“She did mention that you’d be upset with her if you knew she was downstairs instead of in bed.”Maureen smiled a little, remembering the conversation she’d shared with the older woman the night before.
“I wanted her to rest,” the other woman said with a sigh.“I should have known better to know that she wouldn’t.She was so stubborn.”A sob escaped her throat.“It feels wrong to speak about her in the past tense.She should…”
Maureen waited while the other woman pulled herself together.
“She was sick,” Susan said after a moment.“I don’t imagine she told you that?”
Maureen shook her head.“We talked about a lot of things.But she didn’t mention that.”
“She wouldn’t have.Like I said, she was stubborn.She knew she didn’t have a long time left, but she refused to do anything about it.I think she was ready.”
Maureen put her hand on Susan’s arm.“To be with your mom.”
Susan looked at her in surprise.“You did talk about a lot of things.”
“We did,” she said with a soft laugh.“It was an evening I’ll never forget.”
“Elise had that effect on people.”
The two women sat in silence for a few minutes before Susan spoke again.“I don’t know what I’m going to do with this.”She lifted the crochet bag with the half-finished baby blanket in it.“I can’t really give the baby half a blanket, now can I?”
Maureen looked at the bag before letting her eyes drift toward the fireplace and the chair where Elise had sat all night, determinedly working on the project.“I know this might be a little odd.”She turned back to Susan.“But would you let me finish it?It’s been a long time since I’ve crocheted, but I know how important it was to her, and I’d be happy to finish it and send it to you when it’s done.Kind of like a thank-you for the wisdom she imparted to me.I can’t really explain it, but she really helped me yesterday, and I’d really like the opportunity to repay the favor.”
Susan looked down at the bag in her lap and was silent for so long that Maureen wondered whether she’d overstepped.When she looked up, there were tears in her eyes, but she was smiling.“I think that would be really nice.Thank you.”
The women exchanged information and a hug before Susan handed her the crochet bag and left to take care of the details of Elise’s passing.
A few minutes later, Adam appeared.He greeted Maureen with a kiss on the cheek.“What’s that?”He pointed to the bag in her lap.
Maureen already knew what she wanted to happen next, but talking to Susan and hearing about Elise had only strengthened her resolution.“This is a reminder.”She blinked slowly.“To not waste one more minute.Life is short, Adam.”
He nodded in agreement, despite the look of confusion on his face.
“I don’t want to waste one more day.It sounds like we might be trapped here for a few days, but when the roads clear…” She pulled her shoulders back, took a breath, and asked her questions.“Will you come back to Cedar Springs with me for the holidays?Cal gets married on Christmas Eve, and I know it might seem a bit fast and—”
“Of course.”He stopped her and lifted her chin gently with two fingers.“I will go anywhere with you, Maureen.And no, it doesn’t seem fast.It’s been almost forty years.There’s nothing fast about that.I said it before, and I’ll say it again and again.It’s always been you, Maureen.It will always be you.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks, but she wasn’t sad as she leaned forward and kissed the love of her life.
Epilogue
