REDISCOVERING LIFE
Chapter 1 - Unexpected Goodbyes
Tears at funerals were common. Almost even a standard at the funerals she had been to. Time and time again she had seen the quiet masses gather calmly. Stand solemnly around a casket with tears welling in their eyes as a Pastor spoke words of hope and peace. But never had she seen anyone as distraught and lost as the woman sitting two chairs down from her in a small cemetery just inside of La Push, Washington.
Raelynn glanced once more at the tear drenched faced clinging to her father. She had seen the face a dozen or so times before but it had always been different. The face before her now was shattered and shaking with sobs but the face she remembered as a child had always been smiling and strong. A face that had always greeted her with love and affection now stared right through her without even a glint of recognition. The face of her heartbroken Grandmother.
Her grandmother's black and grey hair blew lightly in the wind as in hung down her back just as it had the few times Raelynn had seen her before, but this time the hair that had seemed so full of life and shine now hung limp and knotted from many tear filled hugs. Raelynn glanced down at her grandmothers once kind and soft hands as they wringed themselves white around a golden band that had rested on her left ring finger for nearly 50 years.
Realynn felt herself choke on tears. She had done so well up to that point. She had held back all the tears and tried to be strong, tried to be the rock her grandmother and father needed. But at the thought of her grandparents marriage and devotion to each other brought her gaze back to her weeping grandmothers face and she too began to cry.
How could she even begin to understand how lonely her grandmother must feel? Even surrounded by all those people; she must be completely and utterly alone. To spend 50 years with someone to be completely devoted to them mind, body and soul. Then one day for them just to be gone without a warning or a chance to say goodbye. Raelynn's heart ached and she let out a sob and turned her gaze to the deep wood of the coffin. How could this have happened? Her grandfather had been in great health and was always careful when he went out to hunt with the younger men in the tribe. He had even bragged a few times how he was a better hunter then half of the younger generation. How could such a silly mistake cost him his life?
Raelynn's mind raced as her tears came pouring out. She reached for her hankie in her purse on the floor next to her and managed to spill the entire contents of her purse on the floor. Through the tears she picked up her wallet and put it back in her purse then she moved her hand back to pick up her cell phone and hankie and found a large deeply tanned hand holding her hankie. She heard her cell phone drop quietly into her purse just as a deep and quiet voice spoke.
"Here you go RaeRae."
Raelynn was shocked to hear such a deep voice saying a nickname she hadn't heard since she was 10. A quick flash of a face passed through her mind; a little boy with soft deep eyes and a smile covered by his blowing tribal hair. Raelynn's heart skipped a beat at the thought of her old friend and she shifted her gaze upward expected to see the little boy she used to play tag with in her grandparents back yard. But instead her heart stopped with what she was greeted with; not a long haired little boy, but a strong toned young man with soft deep eyes and a broken smile.