The Butterfly and Bulldog.
Have you ever lost someone you loved and realised you didn't really know them as well as you always imagined?
This story, set in the 90s, explores this as we meet Sybils granddaughter who realises, just before its almost too late, that she knows nothing of her grandmothers early life.
Sybil gladly relates stories from her youth and we finally can hear about how her feelings for Tom developed.
Prologue
The early evening sunlight fell across the bottom of her narrow hospital bed, bathing the room in a warming orange glow. She was lightly dozing, her tiny frame swamped by the heavy duvet and throw draped across her (nowadays she felt cold to the bone).
"My darling is that you?" she whispered, her voice scratchy.
"It's me grandma" I replied, bending down to kiss her cheek. "Don't let me disturb you, you need your rest!"
"Nonsense!" She cleared who throat and slowly opened her eyes, "Now fetch me my glasses and help me up so I can see you properly my girl".
I smiled. Looking round the bedside cabinet I was drawn to a framed photograph I had seen a thousand times before- the only remaining photo of my grandparents wedding day. She, young and beautiful her whole body alight with happiness. He, tall, beaming but wearing a slightly dazed expression like he cannot believe his luck. I was struck by a sudden sadness that I knew little about my grandmother's life before I was in it. That it was now, now that we had been told she had 'days not weeks' that I could begin to see how wrong it was to have not had the curiosity earlier to find out what her life was really like. Soon, as sick as it made me feel, she would not be around to ask.
"Grandma, how old was you when you married grandpa?" I asked as I helped her sit up and put her glasses on.
"21 my dear, same age as you now!"
"21! How on earth could you get married at 21? It's so young! I can't imagine it!"
"Well, I certainly didn't think so! I'd been yearning for your grandfather for years! Things were very different back then; we didn't have the opportunities you girls have now. In fact being with your grandfather was the best opportunity I ever had."
She grinned at me and it was almost as if I could see the spirit of the girl in the picture shine through, even though she was so painfully thin that her cheek bones were jutting out and that her once luxurious thick brown hair had been reduced to wispy grey fluff. I was intrigued.
"If you pass me that cup of tea there I'll tell you all about it".
I pulled the tray closer and helped her bring the beaker to her lips- her hands were deformed from arthritis and there was little strength left in them. I knew she hated being so dependent- she had lived on her own up until last year, when she was 98. That's when she was first diagnosed with the cancer- the cancer that would destroy her body slowly from the inside out, robbing her of energy and dignity. It had been terrible to watch someone so strong fade away.
"I want to hear it all grandma, everything!"
She grinned again "Well then, I suppose I should start with how me met then?"