Chapter 17 - Margaret’s Birthday
On what would have been Margaret’s seventy-second birthday, Albert went to the cemetery.
Logan joined him.
They brought flowers.
For a while neither spoke.
Finally Logan said, “Do you think Mom would be disappointed in me?”
Albert looked at the headstone.
“No.”
“You answered quickly.”
“She’d probably be furious about the back door.”
Logan laughed through tears.
“But disappointed in who you are now? No.”
They sat together.
Albert told stories Logan had forgotten.
Margaret dancing barefoot in their first apartment.
Burning Thanksgiving turkey.
Threatening to divorce Albert because he alphabetized the spice rack.
“I still think that was reasonable.”
“She disagreed.”
They laughed.
Then Logan asked about the money again, but differently.
“Why did you save so much?”
Albert thought.
“Security.”
“For yourself?”
“For all of us.”
Logan nodded.
“I’m saving now.”
“Good.”
“But I’m also taking Emma on vacation.”
Emma was Logan and Chelsea’s daughter, born two years after the crisis.
Albert smiled.
“Also good.”
“I don’t want to become so afraid of losing money that I forget to live.”
Albert stared at Margaret’s name.
“That’s something your mother understood better than I did.”
Before leaving, Logan touched the stone.
“Thanks, Mom.”
Albert waited.
“For what?”
Logan looked at his father.
“For leaving me someone stubborn enough not to give up on me.”
Albert pretended not to cry.
He failed.
That evening the family gathered at Albert’s cottage.
Emma ran across the porch.
“Grandpa!”
Albert lifted her.
She pointed toward his coffee mug.
“Dad?”
“That’s what your father calls me.”
Emma considered this.
Then announced, “You’re Grandpa.”
“Correct.”
Chelsea laughed.
Dinner stretched late into the evening.
At one point Albert looked around.
Logan.
Chelsea.
Emma.
Friends.
No side tables.
No closed doors.
Nobody hidden.
Margaret was missing.
She would always be missing.
But grief had changed.
It was no longer an empty room.
May you like
It had become a chair they kept in their hearts for someone who once sat there.
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