1 Thursday morning in the early spring time, Robin Snyder was about to head out the door to wait for the kindergarten bus, when the wireless telephone rang. Seeing that she was closest to the wireless telephone, she answered it.
"Hello?" Robin spoke right into the telephone upon answering it.
"Why hello there, Robin, it's Is your Grandpa Jeff, is your father there?" Jeff replied to her.
"No, Grandpa Jeff, Dad went out to the book club meeting at the Townsville Public Library, and I'm about to leave for Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, can I take a message, please?" Robin asked him while grabbing a bright pink pen by the wireless telephone and pulling the pad of sticky notes near him so she could give her father the message.
"Just tell your father that your Grandma Nancy doesn't have much time left to live." Jeff said to her.
Robin'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 kindergarten, she wasn't too peculiar with death and dying and she knew her grandmother's time might come, but she wasn't expecting it real soon.
"Robin? are you still there?" Jeff asked her right after it had gone silent for a couple of minutes on account of Robin's surprised reaction.
"Uh… yeah… Grandpa Jeff…. I'm… Right… Here…" Robin stammered a bit while trying to hold back the tear drops.
"Did you get the message? about Grandma Nancy?" Jeff asked her again.
"Yes, Grandpa Jeff, I'll make sure to give Dad the message." Robin replied to him just as Stacy Snyder walked right into the kitchen while she was carrying Robin's lunch bag.
"Well I gotta go to Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, bye, Grandpa Jeff." Robin said to him while hanging up the wireless telephone and looking right up at Stacy who stood right before her.
"Robin, who was that on the telephone with you?" Stacy asked her.
"That was Grandpa Jeff, Mom, Grandma Nancy's not doing too well and she may be on the verge of… of…I just can't say it." Robin stammered a bit while nearly prepared to break down again.
Stacy put Robin's lunch bag down and put her right hand on Robin's right shoulder.
"I understand that Grandma Nancy's real special to you, 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 need to be running along to Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, the kindergarten bus will be here shortly." Stacy said to her while handing Robin her lunch bag and walking right with her to the front door.
"Alright, Mom, thanks a bunch." Robin said to her while giving Stacy a wrap around her right shoulder right before grabbing Robin's right hand and walking towards the bus stop.
The bulk of that entire day at school was uneventful for Robin just as she found herself in a fog too worried about Grandma Nancy to concentrate on anything at all. Then came lunch time and she sat right down at her usual table with Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup. Robin 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 Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup had sat right down with their warm lunch that Professor Utonium had packed for them.
"Are you alright, Robin?" Blossom asked her.
"you seem a bit distracted today." Bubbles asked her due to a look of worriness on their faces.
"No, girls, it's my Grandma Nancy, she's in the hospital." Robin said to them while leaning right over to whisper something to them.
"I think she might be…" Robin whispered to the Powerpuff Girls, but she couldn't bring herself to say the final word.
"Don't worry about it, Robin, she's in the hospital, right? we're pretty sure she'll be alright." Blossom whispered back to her hoping to cheer their best friend for life up a bit.
While ordinarily, she'd take 1 of her best friends for life's words of advice, she knew deep down that Nancy 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 Pokey Oaks Kindergarten. She's been nervous about crying and weeping in Pokey Oaks Kindergarten when she fell over on the playground and cried and wept 'cause she hurt her knee cap and while Ms. Keane came right over and helped her in to the kindergarten nurse's office, she couldn't help but notice Mitch Mitchelson, 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 Nancy outta her mind, not saying much to either Blossom, Bubbles, Buttercup and Mike, who were speaking about the latest movie they had all gone to see yesterday Sunday afternoon together as always at the movie theater and while Robin 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 they destroyed that evil giant Jell-O monster, Robin?" Buttercup asked her.
"Oh yeah, Buttercup, it was super thrilling." Robin replied to them in between sips of her mixed berry apple juice that she brought from her house from the refrigerator this morning.
The Pokey Oaks Kindergarten bell rang and everybody went right outside where Robin sat on 1 of the benches right up by the Pokey Oaks Kindergarten 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 Nancy 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, Robin, let's go." Stacy called to her from inside the taxi cab.
"Okay, Mom, I'm coming with you." Robin called back to her while approaching the back door of the taxi cab and opening it.
"Where are we going?" Robin asked her while climbing right into the cab and closing the door right behind her.
"We're picking up your father from his book club meeting at the Townsville Public Library and heading right up to Townsville hospital where Grandma Nancy is being stationed, I received another telephone call from your Grandpa Jeff 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 could see Grandma Nancy and tell her goodbye." Stacy explained to her just as the taxi cab driver pulled right outta their driveway and headed right in the direction of the Townsville Public Library.
Luckily when they arrived, Toby was waiting right out front at which point, Stacy moved to the back seat and let Toby ride in front ever since he suffered from motion sickness if he rode in the back seat.
"Thanks for keeping everything silent in this library while I'm gone out, you guys." Toby called to them from the taxi cab while waving to 1 of his good friends and neighbors who was in the doorway.
"No problem, Toby, good luck with everything." they called to him as Toby closed his door, buckled his seatbelt and very soon, they were on their way to Townsville Hospital.
It was a super long drive just as Nancy lived an hour away and Nancy was stationed at the hospital in their home town, but the drive felt especially long enough to Robin this time. To pass the time, she decided to work on a little bit of her spelling words she had that evening which was going over her spelling words for the entire week, but she didn't have enough time to finish and Ms. Keane told her to finish the problems at home, but just as she had trouble concentrating in Pokey Oaks kindergarten, 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 Stacy and had her call out D words to her.
"Robin, spell the word, duck." Stacy read aloud.
"Uh… D-U-C-K." Robin replied to herself a bit unsure if she was getting it right or not.
"That's right, now spell the word, dimples." Stacy read aloud.
"Uh… Um…D-I-M-P-L-E-S?" Robin asked her once again unsure.
"Good save there, Robin." Stacy said to her.
They continued on right through the rest of the spelling words which were all words that began with the letter D for that week and while Robin got them correct, she wasn't having any difficulty. However, they arrived at Townsville hospital.
"We're here." The taxi cab driver said to them.
"Thanks a bunch, kind sir." Toby said to him while paying him the cab fare and the Snyder family members piled right outta the taxi cab right on to the curb near the hospital entrance.
Robin gulped nervously upon getting outta the taxi cab 'cause being near hospitals made her a bit nervous.
"What's the matter now, Robin?" Stacy asked her while noticing their daughter looking nervous.
"It's just that I don't like hospitals that much, Mom and Dad." Robin replied to them while leaning in close to Toby and Stacy for support.
"Don't worry about it, Robin, we'll be right with you, and I'm pretty sure a nice warm snuggle and smiling face from Grandma Nancy will cheer you up a lot, it always does." Stacy said to her.
But Robin wasn't only a similar spirited person to Mike Believe in times like this, always looking on the good side of things, even at a kindergarten age 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 Nancy's hospital room was.
"We're here to pay my mother in law a visit." Stacy 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 Stacy.
"She's upstairs in room 407, take the elevator to the 7th floor, it'll be the 5th 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." Stacy said to her.
The Snyder family members got on the next elevator and went right up to Nancy's hospital room and when they got there, they saw Jeff hunched right over the hospital bed where he was lying in tear drops. he was terribly upset that he didn't even hear the entire family come in here.
"Mom? Dad? we're here." Toby said to them while coming right up behind his father who turned around startled by his presence.
"Toby, this isn't easy for me to tell you, but your mother's gone for good." Jeff whispered to him while putting his face on Toby's right shoulder.
Sure enough, Robin, Toby and Stacy all looked at the hospital bed where Nancy was lying, and sure enough, she had passed away peacefully, and at this point, Robin who was a bit freaked out by seeing her deceased grandmother right before her, ran right outta the hospital room screaming and crying at the exact same time.
"Robin, come back, wait!" Stacy called out to her while stumbling right outta the hospital room and running right down the hallway to catch up with her 5 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, Stacy wasn't fast enough and Robin 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.
"Robin, are you alright?" Stacy asked her when she approached their 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 dear sweet daughter, a bit freaked out over the passing of her own grandmother, ran right out into the hallway and had a bit of an accident here." Stacy replied to her.
"Well let's get your daughter checked out then." The nurse said to her while getting the cart outta Robin'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, Stacy and Robin went and caught up with Toby and Jeff, who was seeing to making the funeral arrangements for Nancy's memories.
"What just happened to Robin, Stacy?" Toby asked her upon seeing their daughter covered in bandages.
Stacy 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 Nancy and the taxi cab driver who was a young woman this time, began feeling terribly sorry for the Snyder family's depression and sorrow. When they got back home, Stacy opened up cans of chicken noodle soup for their dinner meal, but nobody was in the mood to eat much of anything, especially not Robin.
"It's just not fair, 1st my Great Uncle Sherman left me, then my pet goldfish, Carcus and now Grandma Nancy, why did she need to pass away?" Robin cried a bit at the dinner table.
"We still have our cat, Ginger, Robin." Stacy said to her.
"I already know that, Mom and Dad." Robin said to them while taking another bite of her chicken noodle soup.
"And just like your Great Uncle Sherman and your pet goldfish, Carcus, my mother's now in the skies of heaven watching down on all of us, but I agree with you, Robin, why did she need to go so soon?" Toby asked her while breaking down in tear drops.
"Can I be excused?" Robin asked them.
Stacy nodded her head just as her mouth was full so Robin 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 and Nancy. The 1st photograph she opened up to in the book was taken not too long ago. Nancy had come to visit and she saw a photograph of Toby making a boysenberry pie with her. It had been good 9 years ever since that ordeal happened. She turned over to another photograph where she and Nancy 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 was visiting Nancy. There was 1 taken of her at age 3 and a half sitting on Nancy'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 Nancy would knit for her every single year and she pulled out the last couple of years of Christmas cards Nancy 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 Nancy'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 Townsville hospital. By this point, Robin lost it again, silently breaking down in tear drops just as she snuggled up with her rabbit 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 the Powerpuff Girls went to Pokey Oaks Kindergarten and Stacy went to the Townsville Public Library, Robin and Toby stayed at home not sure what to do around here. They spent their entire day speaking about Nancy and looking at old photographs while mourning and grieving, not able to contain themselves, that afternoon, Jeff called while letting Toby know when the funeral service would be and asking if he wanted an open or closed casket service at the wake.
"Dad, I don't know if I want it open or not." Toby replied to Jeff on the wireless telephone just as Robin walked right into the upstairs washroom to get herself some ice cold water.
"I sure hope I don't need to see Grandma Nancy's deceased body again, that was very disturbing." Robin said to herself while filling up a cup of ice cold water from the washroom faucet.
"Closed casket, please." Toby said to Jeff on the wireless telephone while hearing Robin's comment.
The following day, which was a Wednesday, Robin did go back to Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, 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 chapel followed by the funeral service the next day, meaning they'd be staying at Jeff's house overnight so Toby and Stacy wanted her to go to school on that day.
"How's your grandmother, Robin.?" Mike asked her while seeing Robin step right up on the kindergarten bus.
She took a seat right next to her and once again, trying to hold back the tear drops. She leaned in to Mike's right ear.
"She passed away right before we even made it to visit her in the hospital." Robin whispered to Mike.
"Oh wow, Robin, I'm terribly sorry to hear that." Mike said to her.
"Thanks a bunch, Mike." Robin replied back to him.
By the time they got to Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, the rest of the entire gang knew about Nancy's passing and were all feeling terribly sorry for Robin and the bulk of the entire day was uneventful, even though Stacy had sent in a note with Robin to give to Ms. Keane 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 Robin 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, Ms. Keane." Robin said to their kindergarten teacher.
"I know, but you need to heal, Robin, I lost my Uncle Edgar last year, so I know how it really feels, you just hang in there, they'll get better in the nick of time." Ms. Keane replied to her just as the Pokey Oaks Kindergarten students were coming back inside from outdoor recess in which Robin skipped on account of she was still feeling a bit achy in a few places from her accident in Townsville Hospital from a couple of days ago.
The rest of the day and Friday afternoon were uneventful, just as Robin more or less went through the motions of going to Pokey Oaks Kindergarten, preparing herself for the upcoming days ahead. During lunch time, Toby and Stacy both had their cars back, but Toby didn't feel much like driving so Stacy came to pick up Robin, signing them out for the afternoon and right before they knew it, they were heading right up to the funeral chapel an hour away from them. Robin 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 chapel which was decorated in beautiful pink and white flower plants and the bright pink casket was closed with a photograph of Nancy sitting right on top was near the alter. While Robin didn't really wish to see a photograph of Nancy, 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." Robin thought to herself while kneeling down at the alter to say some praises.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with lines of Townsville residents who knew Nancy coming right up through the line and giving Robin and the rest of the Snyder family members their condolences and showing their respects and saying how sorry they were for their loss and departure. Robin, 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 Jeff's house where they were staying that evening then they had the funeral service the next day.
"Did you sleep okay, Robin?" Stacy asked her.
Robin nodded her head.
"Well we'd better get a move on, they want us at the church building at 9 AM." Jeff 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. Robin 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 Nancy's favorite hymns and Toby spoke about his late mother. Robin also learned that the church where Nancy's funeral service was at was also the same church where Jeff and Nancy got married a couple of years ago. Then they went to the Townsville Cemetery where Nancy was put down to rest in heavenly peace.
"Goodbye, Nancy, I'll never forget about you." Robin said to herself while looking right up towards the skies of heaven where she believes she saw Nancy's face in the clouds. Right after the funeral service, they went to 1 of Nancy's most favorite restaurants for their lunch meals followed by a trip to the convenient store where Robin picked up the latest coloring book with that week's allowance and Toby picked up a copy of the newspaper to have a copy of his mother's obituary. Afterwards, they packed up the car and headed for home where Robin did her new coloring book on the way there.
Doing the new coloring book cheered her up a bit. It was living proof that it would take a great deal of time to fully come to terms with Nancy'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 Nancy, you'll always be in our hearts and minds." Robin said to herself while waving to the box and closing her closet door.
She went right downstairs to the living room.
"Are You feeling any better, Robin?" Stacy asked her.
"Yeah, Mom, Dad's absolutely right, Grandma Nancy's up in the skies of heaven watching over us just like Great Uncle Edgar is." Robin said to her.
"I'm so relieved you're feeling so much better right now, Robin." Stacy said to her.
"So am I, I'll always miss her more than anything, but I'll never forget her and besides the mom and dad and cat I got right now, she was the closest thing I had for quite a while." Robin said to her.
"But we're still with you and we really love you more than anything." Toby said to her just as they walked right into the room.
"We sure do." Stacy said to them while she and Toby were sitting right on the sofa with Robin and Ginger was lying right down as well.
And from that day frontwards while there were minutes where Robin missed her grandmother, in time, she got over the loss and departure, looking back on the memories of her grandmother, with 1 big smiling face.
==Voice Cast Members Credits==
Jennifer Hale as Ms. Keane and the Receptionist (voice)
Cathy Cavadini as Blossom and Nurse Number 1 (voice)
Tara Charendoff as Bubbles (voice)
Elizabeth Daily as Buttercup (voice)
Jeff Bennett as Toby Snyder (voice)
Jim Cummings as Jeff Snyder (voice)
Julie Nathanson as Robin and Stacy Snyder (voices)
Debi Derryberry as Mike Believe (voice)