Shortstory

ALL THOSE MEMORIES...


The old woman gently moved back and forth in her comfortable rocking chair. She wistfully looked across the valley towards the distant blue mountains. Her eyes followed the white clouds as they swiftly sailed through the blue sky.
‘Just like all my years’ she thought. Absent minded she brushed a strand of silver-grey hair from her forehead. Memories came floating in..., memories of good and of sad times.

AngelWing approached respectfully. He did not want to disturb all those memories she might want to remember, needed to remember.
Happy laughter..., splashing about in the small pool daddy had built for her, chasing her little puppy dog through the vegetable garden, cuddling Mom, ridding horses on their small farm. The sharp pain, when she fell off her pony Trigger and broke her wrist.

All the excitement when her much older brother eagerly went to war across the ocean to fight the evil enemy. And the heavy, heavy tears when he did not return.
‘Missing in action’ they had explained. ‘Missing in action’, what does it mean, she had asked, what does it all mean?

Her heart thumping, when Pete had kissed her for the very first time. The joy she had felt when nearly the whole village had turned up at the wedding to wish her and Pete a wonderful life together. And it was wonderful, especially when +precious darling Mary was born ...until the tractor overturned and crushed Pete’s back and life.

Strange, she had thought, how that dark day could be so bright and sunny when her life had drained away...
“Don’t cry Mommy”, little Mary had said, “don’t cry, look, my dolly is not crying. Daddy is only sleeping, just like my dolly.”
Sweet, sweet Mary, and how beautiful she looked in her wedding dress, suddenly all grown up... and her Marvin had turned out to be allright after all. Never mind that he did the sporadic late night drinking with his rowdy pals. He was a good worker and after she had turned the farm over to Mary and him run it very well.
And what fun they all had when Marvin took them out for a drive in his new shining Ford automobile, even though her little grandson Jamie had vomited all over the backseat, and his sister Emily had giggled all the way home because she thought that was really, really very funny.

Then cancer struck Mary down ..., to see ones child die..., how utterly pointless it all seemed. Marvin took to heavy drinking in his desolation and soon followed Mary into the grave.
Those were bitter years of despair and struggle.

The old woman sighed and tears welled up in her eyes. However, a warm smile slowly replaced her tears as she remembered how glowing Emily had looked when she received her High School certificate and Jamie graduated from the Academy of Arts despite his poor eyesight.
She was proud of her grandchildren. They had done well and kept her occasional days of loneliness at bay.
James had gone to New York to work in an advertising agency and letters told her of Emily’s fine progress of learning all about medicine at the University.
Funny things memories, the old woman mused. ‘All is well; all is very well’ she thought, ‘tomorrow the movers will come. I will just sit here for a little while longer and watch the sun go down one more time on our farm, on our house, on our home.

A life well lived AngelWing reflected and quietly left.

* H.J.*