Chapter 2: Anthony and Katie – May 2049
"Hey, babe; look at what I found!" Anthony looked up at his wife sitting across from him at her mother's desk. She was holding what appeared to be a photograph in one hand and a note or letter in her mother's handwriting in the other.
Anthony moved over by Katie wrapping his arms around her, "What did you find?" The task of sorting through her mother's office was not an easy one, but Katie felt that she needed to do this to help her Dad. Uncle Tim had refused to touch anything in Aunt Dee's office since she passed way nearly three years ago. Anthony was almost certain that his father-in-law had not even set foot in the room since becoming a widower.
Katie turned the picture so her husband could see the image, "Guess who this is?" Anthony looked at the two babies in the picture; one about a year old and the other about six months old. They were sleeping with arms wrapped around each other. He grinned and placed a soft kiss on his soulmate's head.
"You and me; together as always…" Anthony and Katie had been friends from infancy, so not a one of their family had been surprised when they became a romantic couple. "Seems like almost every picture from when we were kids has us together."
Katie nodded, "I know. It's like we were drawn together from the start." She unfolded the note from her Mom and started reading it aloud.
"Dearest Katie: Today is your first birthday and I am so filled with love for you and your brother. The miracle of having children is never lost on me. I see you and John playing or learning something new or interacting with our family, and I feel so blessed to call you my daughter.
"Even more so, I see you with your cousins, and Anthony especially, and I know that you will have friends and family for life. Even at one and one and one half years of age, I can tell that you and Anthony will be bonded for life. I hope that one day you will know the joys of being a mother and that you will have a partner in life who is your soulmate.
"No matter what time brings, you will always be my daughter and I will love you to the moon and back. Mommy"
Anthony brushed a tear from his wife's cheek and wrapped his arms around her. Katie picked up the next page from the pile that she had found with the picture. That's when Anthony realized that there was a stack of notes for Katie from Aunt Dee!
"She wrote a lot of notes to you, didn't she? We can read them together or you can read them alone, babe." He wasn't sure if Katie would find something personal that she wasn't ready to share yet. "I know you miss her; I do, too."
Katie unfolded the note from the pile. As she flattened the page, a picture of the cousins fell out. Tali, Anthony holding hands with Katie, and John were standing in front of a Christmas tree, grinning in their matching outfits. Katie turned the picture over and on the back in what looked to be her mother's writing was a label; "Christmas 2019."
"I remember that Christmas," Anthony remarked. "Ima was pregnant with the twins; very pregnant! That's the Christmas we spent a night at Grandducky's condo, too. That looks like Grandpa's house."
Katie picked up the note and read it aloud, "Dear Katie, Wow another year has flown by and now you are two. You are talking and running and becoming stubborn. I guess you come by that honestly, since you are the product of two stubborn parents. Both you and John are showing your very different personalities. John is so easy going and rarely complains. You on the other hand have an independent streak a mile wide. Your food has to be at just the right temperature for you to eat it. You have a set bedtime routine that your Dad and I dare not vary. At family gatherings, you insist that you sit next to Anthony. In fact, the two of you are always together when the family is together. You and Anthony are destined to be together; I truly believe that you are soul mates. I watch the two of you and I know the bond is forever. Love you to the moon and back, Katie girl! Mommy"
The couple continued to read through the stack of notes. Almost all of the notes and pictures were dated around Katie's birthday or the subsequent Christmas. Every picture except one had Katie and Anthony together. At Christmas 2025, Anthony was with his siblings and parents, almost all of them sporting a cast, wrap, sling, crutches, or a combination. Katie was sitting near Anthony on the floor.
Anthony laughed, "The DiNozzo Disaster!"
"Ah, yes! Your family was a mess that year," Katie chuckled. "We had to move Christmas dinner from Grandpa's house to your house."
"And I started it by breaking my arm," Anthony remembered the fall in the garage that had been the first of the many injuries that Christmas.
Katie had been sifting through the pile of pictures and notes as she and Anthony reminisced. She paused when she opened a note from her seventeenth birthday. The picture of her and Anthony was a candid shot of them kissing at the birthday party.
"Dearest Katie: Wow, I can't believe you are seventeen already. I love the woman you are becoming; a lot of how you approach your pending adult life has to do with the man that Anthony is becoming. You have chosen well, my daughter. He is a good and caring person, very much like his father. He has the unshakable loyalty to family from his mother. Oh, baby girl, I hate that you are growing up on me, but also love the strong woman you are becoming. I am so proud to call you my daughter, Katie. One day you and Anthony will have a beautiful family of your own; just please wait a few years! I guess you are still annoyed with me about catching you two in Anthony's truck in our driveway. It's not that I don't want you two to share your love; I just hope that you two have a chance to achieve your dreams for college first before you have a family. I love you to the moon and back, Caitlyn Sarah. Mom"
Anthony took Katie's hand in his after she finished reading the note aloud. "Babe, I wouldn't do it any other way if I could do it over again. Yeah, we were barely beyond kids ourselves when Anthony was born, but we managed. Who'd have thought we'd be parents at twenty? Now we have three great kids."
Katie leaned into her lover, "I never regretted our decision to have Anthony. Our family is the way it was meant to be. Anthony's eleven and the girls are going to be nine this year. If we had waited, Grandpa wouldn't have met the twins most likely and Mom…" Katie choked back a sob.
"I know, love. Your Mom got to enjoy being a Grandma to all three of our kids and they all remember her!" Anthony placed a soft kiss on his wife's head.
Anthony picked up the next picture in the pile; Katie's high school graduation. It was a collage of pictures; one of Katie in her cap and gown, one with John, one with Anthony, one of her receiving her diploma on stage, and one with her parents. He looked at the images one by one. "Look, you have your promise ring on in most of these!" He pointed to her ring finger in the picture with her cap and gown.
"I still have it," she grinned at him. "It's in my jewelry box, and it still fits."
"I remember how nervous I was when I asked your parents if I could give it to you," Anthony thought back to the conversation with Uncle Tim and Aunt Dee. He had been a wreck even though he had carefully rehearsed what he would say. When he had explained to them that he knew, and had known for a long time, that Katie was his soul mate, Aunt Dee had hugged him. When she pulled him close, she had whispered in his ear that she knew from when they were babies that he and her daughter were destined to be together.
"Here's the note," Katie picked up a folded sheet and started reading.
"My dearest daughter, Caitlyn, I am so proud of the woman you have become. Today marks a milestone in your life journey in many ways. You were awarded your high school diploma and your Associates' Degree as a symbol of the completion of one phase of your education. I know that you will do well at Ohio State, and that you will be a fantastic teacher. Never would I have imagined just eighteen short years ago that you would also be just about engaged to your soul mate as well. Although I have known in my heart that you and Anthony would someday make a family, I never envisioned it happening so soon! Remember to enjoy your last years of your teens as you complete the next degree in your education. Take the time for you now, for once you start a family, the moments for you to pamper yourself become precious commodities. Love you to the moon and back! Mom"
"I wish Mom had given these to me while she was alive," Katie wiped at her eyes. Anthony drew her to him, holding her against his chest as she let the tears fall. "I still miss her so much!" She gazed at the next picture in the stack. "I remember that photo session!" She showed the picture to her husband.
Anthony grinned; he had taken photos of Katie and one week old Anthony to send with the birth announcements and then tried to get a family shot using the remote shutter release. Anthony IV had cooperated with the shots with his mother and by himself, but had managed to yawn, cry, and squirm for most of the family shots. The one they had sent out with the announcement had him with his mouth open in the beginning of a yawn. It had been one of Aunt Dee's favorite shots from the photo session. He picked up the note that had been under the photo.
He unfolded it and read aloud, "Dear Katie and Anthony, I am at a loss for words to describe the feeling of becoming a grandparent. Anthony IV is beautiful. He is most definitely a DiNozzo; I can see a strong resemblance to his namesakes. I am so eager to hold him for the first time when you come to visit over the Memorial Day weekend. Your Dad keeps calling me 'Grandma;' he says he is getting me used to hearing it. I think he's still in shock at becoming a grandparent! Uncle Tony was so right that there is nothing like the feeling of seeing your first grandchild. I am filled with love for the little boy already. My baby has her own baby! There is so much I want to share with you about being a mother, but most of all I want to share the love with you. I love all three of you to the moon and back! Mom"
Anthony wiped a tear from his eye, as Katie sat looking at the images from her son's first week of life. It seemed so long ago that he was that small! She glanced at her husband wiping his eyes and took his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Mom loved you like another son, you know!"
"Yeah, I know. I want to go hug my Ima so much right now," Anthony choked on a sob. "God, Katie, I can't even begin to imagine what you must feel with your Mom gone. I miss her so much and there's a hole in my heart where she should be." He embraced his wife rubbing circles on her back with his hand as they both sobbed.
The final note lay on the desk with several pictures. Katie moved her hand to the pile and spread out the images; pictures from the Christmas day of the accident that would forever change their lives. There was a group shot of the entire family, shots of her parents with the grandkids, with the kids, and family groups for their generation.
"Mom loved those pictures," Katie remarked. "Remember she had Dad put them where she could see them from her bed at the rehab center?" Anthony nodded. He had helped Uncle Tim load digital images to a frame that could recognize voice commands so that Aunt Dee could scroll through the images.
"Will you read the note, babe? I'm not sure I can," Katie handed the folded page to her soul mate. Anthony unfolded the paper.
"My Katie girl, I wish I could be writing this note with my own hand, but it is not to be. I know my days are numbered; and I am ready to let go. As much as it pains me to know that you, your Dad, and John will be filled with grief when I have to leave, I also know that the three of you will stand together to move forward with the support of our extended family. I am so proud of you, baby girl. You have a beautiful family. Anthony IV is so much like his namesakes. Kelly and Shannon are very much like you were at the same age. When I look at the girls, I see smaller versions of you and of Anthony. I hope that they will remember that their Grandma loved them with all of her heart and to the moon and back. Katie, your Dad is going to need you and John to help him move on. Uncle Tony and Aunt Ziva will be his support system as well. I am still in awe at how much they gave to help us after the accident. Aunt Ziva kept telling me that it was the unwritten rule: 'You do what you have to do for family.' Katie bug, cry your tears for me for a short while when I leave, but smile when you remember me. Let your heart and soul be filled with love, laughter, and smiles when you think of me. Share the happy memories with your children and keep me alive in their hearts. I love you to the moon and back, my Katie girl. It's not goodbye forever, I'll see you on the flip side one day! Love you, Mom"
Anthony was barely keeping it together as he read. At the final sentence, he put the page down. He sat with his head on his wife's shoulder for almost five minutes, both of them sobbing but also smiling at the good memories as Aunt Dee requested.
"I think we should share these with the kids," Katie whispered. "Keep Mom's memory alive for them."
"Yeah, and share our memories with them as well… Life is too short to keep the memories inside. I love you so much Katie." Anthony vowed to hug his Ima and Abba extra when he saw them next, and to hug Uncle Tim and tell the man how much he loved him when Ima and Abba brought him home later that day.
"We have one special family, don't we?" he voiced his thought aloud.
"That we do," Katie agreed. "That we do!"