1 Wednesday morning in the early spring time, the now 8 year old D.W. was about to head out the door to wait for the school bus, when the telephone rang. Seeing that she was closest to the telephone, she answered it.
"Hello?" D.W. spoke right into the telephone upon answering it.
"Why hello there, D.W., it's Is your Uncle Sean, is your father there?" Sean replied to her.
"No, Uncle Sean, Dad went out to open the Elwood City Bakery Shop, and I'm about to leave for school, can I take a message, please?" D.W. asked, grabbing a pen by the phone and pulling the pad of sticky notes near him so he could take down a message.
"Just tell your father that your Grandma Thora doesn't have much time left to live." Sean said to her.
D.W.'s heart sank in her chest, just as she stood there, not able to speak, her mouth was wide open and while she was only in 3rd grade, she wasn't too peculiar with death and dying and she knew their Grandma Thora's time might come, but she wasn't expecting it real soon.
"D.W.? are you still there?" Sean asked her right after it had gone silent for a couple of minutes on account of D.W.'s surprised reaction.
"Uh… Yeah… Uncle Sean…. I'm… Right… Here…" D.W. stammered a bit while trying to hold back the tear drops.
"Did you get the message? about Grandma Thora?" Sean asked her again.
"Yes, Uncle Sean, I'll make sure to give Dad the message." D.W. replied to him just as Arthur, Kate and Jane walked right into the kitchen while Jane was carrying D.W.'s lunch bag.
"Well I gotta go to school, bye, Uncle Sean." D.W. said to him while hanging up the wireless telephone and looking right up at Jane who stood right before her.
"D.W., who was that on the telephone with you?" Jane asked her.
"That was Uncle Sean, Mom, Grandma Thora's not doing too well and she may be on the verge of… of…I just can't say it." D.W. stammered a bit while nearly prepared to break down again.
Jane put D.W.'s lunch bag down and put her right hand on D.W.'s right shoulder.
"I understand that Grandma Thora's real special to you, Arthur and Kate, I'll tell you what, I'll speak to your father, and right after school, we'll see to going and paying her a visit, but of course, both of our cars are in the shop, right after your father getting that flat tire yesterday, and mine having to go in for an oil change, so we'll need to take a taxi cab, but we'll see what we can do, now you, Arthur and Kate need to be running along to school and preschool, the school buses will be here shortly." Jane said to her while handing D.W. her lunch bag and walking right with her to the front door.
"Alright, Mom, thanks a bunch." D.W. said to her while giving Jane a wrap around her right shoulder right before grabbing Arthur's right hand and walking towards the bus stop.
The bulk of that entire day at school was uneventful for D.W. just as she found herself in a fog too worried about Grandma Thora to concentrate on anything at all. Then came lunch time and she sat right down at her usual table with Bud, Emily, Vicita, Tommy, Timmy, James, Amanda, Maryann, Kyle, Liam, Lucy, Lisa, Edwin and Cheikh while Arthur, Buster, Francine, Muffy, Sue Ellen, Fern, Binky, Jenna, Prunella, George, Maria and Carl were in Middle School and Kate, Mei Linn, Ethan, Colby, Nathan, Olivia, Brian, Aubrey, Milo, Tony, Francesca, Trevor, Bruce, Lizzie, Clyde, April, Darren, Becky and Dylan were in Ms. Morgan's preschool class. D.W. opened up her lunch bag, tore open the sandwich bag with her peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich inside when she felt somebody tapping on her right shoulder. She turned right over to see that Bud had sat right down with his warm lunch he got from the school cafeteria kitchen
"Are you alright, D.W.? you seem a bit distracted today." Bud asked her due to a look of worriness on his face.
"No, Bud, it's my Grandma Thora, she's in the hospital." D.W. said to him while leaning right into Bud's ear to whisper something to him.
"I think she might be…" D.W. whispered to Bud, but she couldn't bring herself to say the final word.
"Don't worry Chuckie, she's in the hospital right? I'm sure she'll be fine." Tommy whispered back, hoping to cheer his friend up.
While ordinarily, she'd take her best friend for life's word of advice, she knew deep down Grandma Thora didn't have too much time to live, but thinking about it only made her more upset. It was all she could do most of that day to keep the tear drops from coming to her eyes, not wishing to cry and weep in front of the other young kids in school. She's been nervous about crying and weeping in school ever since she was in kindergarten when she fell over on the playground and cried and wept 'cause she hurt her knee cap and while the kindergarten teacher came right over and helped her in to the school nurse's office, he couldn't help but notice Timmy and Tommy, the Tibble boys in particular, laughing at her and calling her a cry baby. Embarrassed by this, she swore to never break down in tear drops in school again, and now, here she was, 3 years later, on the verge of wanting to cry and weep, but not wishing to face the embarrassment again on top of losing 1 of the few maternal grandparent figures that's always been there for her just as long as she could remember. She went back to eating her lunch meal while trying to put Grandma Thora outta her mind, not saying much to either Bud, Emily, Vicita, Tommy, Timmy, Amanda, Maryann, Lucy, Lisa, Edwin, James, Kyle, Liam and Cheikh, who were talk about the latest Bunny League movie they had all gone to see yesterday Sunday afternoon together as always at the movie theater and while D.W. did enjoy the movie, she wasn't much in the mood to speak so only put her own input in if she was spoken to.
"Wasn't it amazing how the Bunny League destroyed those evil giant wasps, D.W.?" Emily asked her.
"Oh yeah, it was super thrilling." D.W. replied to them in between sips of her mixed berry apple juice that she brought from home this morning.
The school bell rang and everybody went right outside where D.W. sat on 1 of the benches right up by the school building and watched her good friends play hop scotch and just as it was all she could do to concentrate during the morning time, she found the exact same trouble arose that afternoon. She was just grateful to come right at the end of the entire day that she was never called on to answer a question. Chances were that she was so out of it, she would've got her answers wrong, something that hardly even happened, unless of course she was really nervous about an upcoming test or lost in thought over a major event like it was today with Grandma Thora being on the verge of dying.
Right before she knew it, the school bell rang again and she got right on the school bus where she took a seat right by the window and looked right out the window all the way home and not speaking with anybody at all. No sooner had she arrived home when a big yellow taxi cab was sitting right in the Read family's driveway. She was curious enough to see what was going on around here.
"Come on, Arthur, D.W. and Kate, let's go." Jane called to them from inside the taxi cab.
"Okay, Mom, we're coming with you." Arthur called back to her while approaching the back door of the taxi cab and opening it.
"Where are we going?" D.W. asked her while climbing right into the cab with Arthur and Kate and closing the door right behind her.
"We're picking up your father from the bakery shop and heading right up to Elwood City hospital where Grandma Thora is being stationed, I received another telephone call from your uncle Sean today and she doesn't have much time left to live, it'll be good if she's still alive when we get there, neither 1 of our cars were ready to be picked up at the mechanic's so your father and I agreed to take a taxi cab up there so you 3 could see Grandma Thora and tell her goodbye." Jane explained to them as the taxi cab driver pulled right outta their driveway and headed right in the direction of the Elwood City Bakery Shop.
Luckily when they arrived, David was waiting right out front at which point, Jane moved to the back seat and let David ride in front ever since he suffered from motion sickness if he rode in the back seat.
"Thanks for watching over things while I'm gone out, you guys." David called to them from the taxi cab while waving to 1 of his co-workers who was in the doorway.
"No problem, David, good luck with everything." Co-Worker Number 1 called to him as David closed his door, buckled his seatbelt and very soon, they were on their way to Elwood City Hospital.
It was a super long drive just as Grandma Thora lived an hour away and Grandma Thora was stationed at the hospital in their home town, but the drive felt especially long enough to D.W. this time. To pass the time, she decided to work on a little bit of homework she had that evening which was going over her spelling words for the entire week and finishing up some math problems on a worksheet that she began in Rocky Dilliday's class, but she didn't have enough time to finish and Rocky told her to finish the problems at home, but just as she had trouble concentrating in school, not to mention the bumpiness of the taxi cab made it difficult to write, it was nearly impossible to do her math homework so she handed the sheet of spelling words to Jane and had her call out C words to her.
"D.W., spell the word, cat." Kira read aloud.
"Uh… C-A-T." D.W. replied to herself a bit unsure if she was getting it right or not.
"That's right, now spell the word, cactus." Jane read aloud.
"Uh… Um…C-A-C-T-U-S?" D.W. asked her once again unsure.
"Good save there, D.W.." Jane said to her.
They continued on right through the rest of the spelling words which were all words that began with the letter C for that week and while D.W. got them correct, she wasn't having any difficulty. However, they arrived at Elwood City hospital.
"We're here." The taxi cab driver said to them.
"Thanks a bunch, kind sir." David said to him while paying him the cab fare and the 5 Read family members piled right outta the taxi cab right on to the curb near the hospital entrance.
D.W. gulped nervously upon getting outta the taxi cab 'cause being near hospitals made her a bit nervous.
"What's the matter with you, D.W.?" Arthur asked her while noticing his younger sister looking nervous.
"It's just that I don't like hospitals that much, Arthur." D.W. replied to him while leaning in close to David and Jane for support.
"Don't worry about it, D.W., we'll be right with you, and I'm sure a warm hug and smiling face from Grandma Thora will cheer you up a lot, it always does." Arthur said to her.
But Arthur wasn't only a similar spirited person to Binky in times like this, always looking on the good side of things, even at age 12, he didn't have quite the exact same concept of death that D.W. had while seeing his Uncle Fred still alive and just as far as she knew, Arthur had never lost anybody important to him before, but however, she didn't wanna possibly begin an argument with her older brother so she remained silent just as the entire family walked right into the hospital and went right up to the receptionist's desk to find out where Grandma Thora's hospital room was.
"We're here to pay Grandma Thora a visit." Jane said to the receptionist who was sitting right behind the desk.
The receptionist typed some things on the computer screen then she turned her attention back to Jane.
"She's upstairs in room 309, take the elevator to the 5th floor, it'll be the 4th room on your right down the hallway." The receptionist said to them while pointing in the direction of the elevators.
"Thanks a bunch, ma'am." Jane said to her.
The Read family members got on the next elevator and went right up to Grandma Thora's hospital room and when they got there, they saw Sean and Bonnie hunched right over the hospital bed where David and Sean's mother was lying in tear drops. They were terribly upset that they didn't even hear the entire family come in here.
"Mom? Sean? Bonnie? we're here." David said to them while coming right up behind his brother and his sister in law who turned around startled by his presence.
"David, this isn't easy for us to tell you," Sean explained to him.
"but our mother's gone for good." Bonnie whispered to him while putting her face on David's right shoulder.
Sure enough, Arthur, D.W., Kate and Jane all looked at the hospital bed where Grandma Thora was lying, and sure enough, she had passed away peacefully, and at this point, D.W. who was a bit freaked out by seeing their deceased grandmother right before her, ran right outta the hospital room screaming and crying at the exact same time.
"D.W., come back, wait!" Jane called out to her while stumbling right outta the hospital room and running right down the hallway to catch up with her 8 year old daughter who had run face 1st into a cart that had ice cold water on it to be delivered to other patients in the building.
Unfortunately, Jane wasn't fast enough and D.W. went face 1st into the cart which ran right down the hallway 'til it hit the wall at the end, toppling over above her and splashing ice cold water everywhere.
"D.W., are you alright?" Jane asked her when she approached her 2nd born daughter who was now lying right on the ground soaking wet and a cart nearly on top of her.
A nurse came by at that minute and saw what had happened.
"What's going on?" The nurse asked her.
"Oh thank goodness somebody's here, my 2nd born daughter, a bit freaked out over the passing of their own grandmother, ran right out into the hallway and had a bit of an accident here." Jane replied to her.
"Well let's get your daughter checked out then." The nurse said to her while getting the cart outta D.W.'s way and checking to see if she was still responsive.
She was, even though she was quite sore, but when she was on her feet, they headed right down to an examining room where she was checked out, but nothing was broken, just a few scrapes and bruises which the nurse practitioner treated. When that was finished, Jane and D.W. went and caught up with Arthur, Kate, David, Sean and Bonnie who was seeing to making the funeral arrangements for Grandma Thora's memories.
"What just happened to D.W., Jane?" David asked her upon seeing their 2nd born daughter covered in bandages.
Jane went on to explain to him what had happened just as they headed right outside to catch their taxi cab back home to their house.
On the ride home, they had a good mourn over the loss and departure of Grandma Thora and the taxi cab driver who was a young woman this time, began feeling terribly sorry for the Read family's depression and sorrow. When they got back home, Jane opened up cans of chicken noodle soup for their dinner meal, but nobody was in the mood to eat much of anything, especially not D.W..
"It's just not fair, 1st my pet bird, Spanky left me, then Francine's grandmother, Bubby, then my television idol, Mr. Rogers and now Grandma Thora, why did she need to pass away?" D.W. cried a bit at the dinner table.
"We still have our other relatives, D.W.." Kate said to her.
D.W. stared at their youngest sister.
"We know that, Kate." D.W. snapped at her.
"D.W., no more snapping at your younger sister." Jane said to her.
"Sorry 'bout that, Mom." D.W. muttered to herself while taking another bite of her chicken noodle soup.
"And just like Spanky and Francine's grandmother, Bubby and your television idol, Mr. Rogers, my mother's now in the skies of heaven watching down on all of us, but I agree with you, D.W., why did she need to go so soon?" David asked her while breaking down in tear drops.
"Can I be excused?" D.W. asked them.
Jane nodded her head just as her mouth was full so she got right up from the dining room table and headed right off to her bedroom where she sat for a bit on her bed and looked right through old photographs of her, Arthur, Kate and Grandma Thora. The 1st photograph she opened up to in the book was taken not too long ago right before Kate was born. Grandma Thora had come to visit and she saw a photograph of David making a blueberry pie with her. It had been good 8 years ever since that ordeal happened, but she recalled some incident about thinking Grandma Thora had bad luck with her cooking skills and being upset by the fact that she was spending more time with Arthur than she was with her. She turned over to another photograph where she, Arthur, Kate and Grandma Thora were playing together as always in the backyard the following day, then she flipped back a few pages to photographs taken of her when she, Arthur and Kate were visiting Grandma Thora. There was 1 taken of her at age 4 and a half sitting on Grandma Thora's lap and looking at 1 of her fairy tale books
She looked at more photographs while looking at all of the photographs taken of her wearing the sweaters Grandma Thora would knit for her every single year and she pulled out the last couple of years of Christmas cards Grandma Thora had sent him, but tragically, no Christmas card came last year 'cause of the terrible health state she was in, but just as she looked at his Grandma Thora's handwriting on the cards, she couldn't stop thinking about how she didn't even get to tell her goodbye 'cause she was already deceased when they arrived at Elwood City hospital. By this point, D.W. lost it again, silently breaking down in tear drops just as she snuggled up with her Mary Moo Cow plushy and put her face right into her pillow while crying herself to sleep and never even getting undressed for bed or remembering to take her fruit flavored vitamins which was something she hadn't forgotten ever or at least just as far as she could remember.
The very next day, while Arthur went to school and Kate went to preschool and Jane went to the Elwood City bakery shop, D.W. and David stayed at home not sure what to do around here. They spent their entire day speaking about Grandma Thora and looking at old photographs while mourning, not able to contain themselves, that afternoon, Sean called while letting David know when the funeral service would be and asking if he wanted an open or closed casket service at the wake.
"Sean, I don't know if I want it open or not." David replied to Sean on the wireless telephone just as D.W. walked right into the upstairs washroom to get herself some ice cold water.
"I sure hope I don't need to see Grandma Thora's deceased body again, that was very disturbing." D.W. said to herself while filling up a cup of ice cold water from the washroom faucet.
"Closed casket, please." David said to Sean on the wireless telephone while hearing D.W.'s comment.
The following day, which was a Tuesday, D.W. did go back to school, even though she would've preferred to stay at home, she was gonna need to miss half a day on Friday to go to the funeral service at the funeral home followed by the funeral service the next day, meaning they'd be staying at Sean and Bonnie's house overnight so Jane and David wanted her to go to school on that day.
"How's your grandmother, D.W.?" Lucy asked her while seeing D.W. step right up on the school bus.
She took a seat right next to her and once again, trying to hold back the tear drops. She leaned in to Lucy's right ear.
"She passed away right before we even made it to visit her in the hospital." D.W. whispered to Lucy.
"Oh wow, D.W., I'm terribly sorry to hear that." Lucy said to her.
"Thanks a bunch, Lucy." D.W. replied back to her.
By the time they got to school, the rest of the entire gang knew about Grandma Thora's passing and were all feeling terribly sorry for D.W. and the bulk of the entire day was uneventful, even though Jane had sent in a note with D.W. to give to Rocky about having to leave early on Friday afternoon and asking if she could take her spelling test in the morning time ever since he usually gave them right after lunch and recess, he agreed to let D.W. take the test the following Monday morning and seeing that he knew what she must be going through, giving her the weekend to study.
"You don't need to do that, Mr. Dilliday." D.W. said to their 3rd grade teacher.
"I wanna, you need to heal, D.W., I lost my uncle last year, so I know how it really feels, you just hang in there, they'll get better in the nick of time." Rocky replied to her just as the 3rd grade students were coming back from gym class which D.W. skipped on account of she was still feeling sore in a few places from her accident in Elwood City Hospital from a couple of days ago.
The rest of the day and Friday afternoon were uneventful, just as D.W. more or less went through the motions of going to school, preparing herself for the upcoming days ahead. During lunch time, David and Jane both had their cars back, but David didn't feel much like driving so Jane came to pick up Arthur, D.W. and Kate, signing them out for the afternoon and right before they knew it, they were heading right up to the funeral home an hour away from them. D.W. had problems falling asleep the night before, so she caught herself a relaxing nap in the car on the way up there. Right after they arrived, they went right into the funeral home which was decorated in beautiful pink and white flower plants and the purple casket was closed with a photograph of Grandma Thora sitting right on top was near the alter. While D.W. didn't really wish to see a photograph of Grandma Thora, especially since this was 1 of the more recent pictures when she began getting really ill, all she could think about was…
"At least I don't need to look at her deceased body again." D.W. thought to herself while kneeling down at the alter to say some praises.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with lines of Elwood City residents who knew Grandma Thora coming right up through the line and giving D.W. and the rest of the Read family members their condolences and showing their respects and saying how sorry they were for their loss and departure. D.W., wearing a black outfit which she changed into upon arriving at the funeral home, politely hugged them back and told them thanks a bunch, even though deep down, she'd much prefer to have been left alone.
If that wasn't enough, it was even harder to face Sean and Bonnie's house where they were staying that evening then they had the funeral service the next day.
"Did you sleep okay, D.W.?" Jane asked her.
D.W. nodded her head.
"Well we'd better get a move on, they want us at the church building at 9 AM." Sean said to them while standing up from the breakfast table and heading upstairs to prepare themselves
They all finished their breakfast meals and went to get themselves prepared. D.W. put back on the black outfit she wore the day before, if for no other reason, she didn't bring anything to wear. Right before they knew it, they were at the church and the funeral service shortly began afterwards. They performed several of Grandma Thora's favorite hymns and David and Sean spoke about their late mother. D.W. also learned that the church where Grandma Thora's funeral service was at was also the same church where their Aunt Lucy got married that 1 year. Then they went to the Elwood City Cemetery where Grandma Thora was put down to rest in heavenly peace.
"Goodbye, Grandma Thora, I'll never forget about you." D.W. said to herself while looking right up towards the skies of heaven where she believes she saw Grandma Thora's face in the clouds. Right after the funeral service, they went to 1 of Grandma Thora's most favorite restaurants for their lunch meals followed by a trip to the convenient store where D.W. picked up the latest Bunny League comic magazine with that week's allowance and David picked up a copy of the newspaper to have a copy of his and Sean's mother's obituary. Afterwards, they packed up the car and headed for home where D.W. read her new comic magazine on the way there.
Reading the comic magazine cheered her up a bit and Arthur commented how it was the 1st time he had seen his younger sister smiling in a few days. It was living proof that it would take a great deal of time to fully come to terms with Grandma Thora's passing, she was on the road to recovery, but right before she could really begin the healing process, there was 1 final thing she went home and did. Later that Saturday afternoon, she got together a little box and placed inside the 1st outfit she knitted for her as a baby girl, which was not the purple and pink 1 she was wearing at the park that autumn. Along with those photos of their past years, she also put in there, the Christmas cards she sent her over the years, and on the very top of the stack, she cut out the obituary from the newspaper and laid it right on top. When everything was inside, she closed the box and placed it on the shelf in her closet.
"Goodbye, Grandma Thora, you'll always in our hearts and minds." D.W. said to herself while waving to the box and closing her closet door.
She went right downstairs to the living room where she found Arthur watching The Adventures of the Bunny League on television. She took a seat right next to him on the sofa. When a television commercial came on, Arthur looked over to see his younger sister sitting right next to him and smiling at him as well.
"Are You feeling any better, D.W.?" Arthur asked her.
"Yeah, Arthur, Dad and Uncle Sean are absolutely right, Grandma Thora's up in the skies of heaven watching over us just like Mr. Rogers and Francine's grandmother, Bubby is." D.W. said to him.
"I'm so relieved you're feeling so much better right now, D.W.." Arthur said to her.
"So am I, I'll always miss her more than anything, but I'll never forget her and besides the mom, dad, youngest sister and dog we've got now, she was the closest thing we've had for quite a while." D.W. said to him.
"But Mom, Dad, Kate and Pal are still with all of us and they really love us more than anything." Arthur said to her just as Jane, David, Kate and Pal walked right into the room.
"We sure do." Jane said to them while she, David and Kate were sitting right on the sofa with them and Pal was lying right down on the living room floor.
And from that day forward, while there were moments where Chuckie missed his grandmother, in time, he got over the loss, looking back on the memories of his grandmother, with a smile on his face.
The End