Chapter 15 - Patricia Comes Back
Patricia spent several years rebuilding her relationship with Caroline.
Slowly.
Painfully.
Sometimes badly.
Then one autumn afternoon, she arrived at the beach house.
She knocked.
Always knocked now.
I opened the door.
She held a cardboard box.
"I found these."
Inside were dozens of letters.
Mine.
Birthday cards Grandma had written to me.
Christmas notes.
Several had never been mailed.
Others appeared to have been hidden among old family documents.
One envelope contained a note Grandma wrote after my fifth excluded Christmas.
Nora,
I wish I knew how to fix what people refuse to admit they've broken.
I sat on the porch and cried.
Patricia sat beside me.
"I helped create this," she said.
"Yes."
"I can't undo it."
"No."
"What can I do?"
I looked at her.
"Stop trying to undo it."
She frowned.
"Do better with whatever time you have left."
May you like
She nodded.
Sometimes that's the closest thing to forgiveness real life gives you.
