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Why does life have to be so hard, Lord? Are You really asking me to give up Goldie? She’s the last thing I have, other than my children.
She needed to be grateful that God wasn’t requiring her children.
I’ve given You everything. Everything except for them.
And Goldie.
She sighed. If she claimed to love God, if she claimed to be a follower of Christ, if she claimed to want God’s glory and not her own, then giving up her horse shouldn’t be such a struggle. It should be something she gladly did, if it furthered God’s plan in her life. It shouldn’t be something that was pried out of her cold, resisting fingers.
Gram’s breathing changed, becoming harsher, harder, and Dakota lifted her head.
It was a shift that she immediately knew signaled the end.
She grabbed her phone and texted her sister.
Gram is leaving us.
Her sister probably wouldn’t come, but she wanted to give her that option. She didn’t want to keep her from being with her grandma at the end if she truly wanted to be. Although, they had known for the last several days that any minute could be her last.
And her last words had been to Dakota, telling her to move to Michigan. How could she tell her no? How could she deny her, even if it meant selling her beloved horse?
Her phone buzzed.
Thanks for letting me know. Tell me when she’s gone, and I’ll call the funeral director.
Dakota stared at her phone. At least Kylie was going to take care of that. They’d already made plans; their gram had even helped. She didn’t want a big funeral, didn’t want a lot of fanfare, just wanted to be laid to rest as inexpensively as possible without being cremated. Being cremated was too much like going to hell, she said, and she didn’t see it in the Bible as a viable thing; it was something that the heathens did. Whether it was or wasn’t, they would pay a little extra to give her a traditional burial.
And Kylie would handle it. She would pay for it out of Gram’s savings and no doubt pocket the rest.
That was fine with Dakota. She just wished her grandma hadn’t needed to go. But God’s timing was perfect, and God was calling her home, and there was nothing Dakota could do to stop it.
She held her breath as Gram’s breathing became unsteady, rough and loud.
Maybe being on her knees was the proper position, because it was like she could feel the angels coming to carry her grandmother home. Whether they were, whether they weren’t, it felt like a sacred thing to be in the presence of someone who stepped from this world into the next.
She held tightly to Gram’s hand, knowing that wouldn’t keep her, and listened as Gram exhaled. Several dozen seconds later, she inhaled again, and this time, when she breathed out, everything was still.
Dakota let out the breath she had been holding. Just like that, her gram was gone.
And just like that, a new chapter of her life would begin.
