Chapter 9 – My Dream Continues
Our lives moved on filled with the joys and sorrows of life. Chris graduated the next spring and accepted an appointment to the Naval Academy. He had done well in his high school ROTC program and having a recommendation from the NCIS Division Director didn't hurt either.
The twins continued on their separate ventures with great success in the class room, sports and outside ventures. Charlotte's cheer squad won State both her junior and senior years. She also played Lacrosse a sport that I still don't understand. Jimmy was selected all conference in basketball his senior year and was team co-captain. Both were ranked in the top 3% of their graduating class.
We had our first scare with mother LaSalle when the twins were seniors. She had somehow gotten tripped up by one of her dogs, fell and broke her hip. Fortunately the home place was all on one floor. Chris hired an aid that stayed on site with her.
We walked down to the creek while we were there and Chris had a remembrance about the time that he and Cade spent on the island. "I could stand right up there" Chris pointed and see every deer that came down here to drink.
"So you never thought you might want to build a house up there I asked?"
Chris looked at me as if I had thrown a bomb at him. "You have got to be kidding me City Mouse, it never crossed my mind." We decided then and there that would be the location of our new home. We met with two builders and contracted with a lab tech to come to do a soil analysis. We also obtained an estimate for a hook up to the new sewer line coming in about half mile over the hill. We discovered that building a pump over a berm would be cheaper in the long run than a septic system.
We flew back to D.C. on Sunday afternoon and met with an appraiser on Monday for our house in D.C. Shocked at the final figures of the value of the house, we made plans to put the house on the market right after Easter. In the end we received multiple offers which erupted into a bidding war. We closed three weeks after the twins graduated and were able to just load up the moving truck and move right into the new house in Alabama.
Chris stayed on in D.C. for a couple more months and was able to take terminal leave the last 45 days of the year. Sadly this was another time that fate worked in our favor. Mother LaSalle took a bad turn after Christmas and passed away a week after her favorite holiday Valentine's Day. The children had insisted that we fill her house with flowers. I am so glad that I responded positively to their request.
She called me close to her on the 13th as I placed another vase of roses in her room. "Thank you Sonja" she said quietly. I looked at her with a question in my face. "Thank you Sonja for loving my boy. I never told you that he came home a second time in a lot of pain because of a woman. I never had anything against Savannah and I thought the puppy love phase would end but it never did. I always knew my son's heart. He was a lot like his father in the respect to business he had one goal only one. Chris wanted to be a police officer.
His father would have had a fit if he knew that I was the one who gave Christopher the seed money to relocate. I wasn't always sure that I had done the right thing especially after Katrina. He was so filled with anger and rage. Then he got a new job. I only met his new boss once but I could tell by the tone of his voice how drawn Chris was to that Mr. Pride.
Things got a little better. He got a new partner a woman from the east. Then if I remember right he met you and some other woman from the east coast. One day he called me and simply said 'momma I need to come home'
"Alright son, I'll be right here." He sulked around for three or four days. Him and old Blue would disappear for hours and come back empty handed. Finally I asked him if he was ever going to bring me a pheasant to cook for him. He looked at me as if I asked him if he was going to bring me the moon.
"Why are you here Christopher? Have you done something wrong?"
"Yeah momma. I really messed up."
"Then he told me all about this woman. How he had let her go for her own good. How it broke his heart. How he realized how wrong he had been. How the pain hurt him so. I questioned him about how/if he could fix it and he said that there was no way to fix it."
"The first time I saw you I wanted to cry because I knew you were the woman. Christopher had only said that his old partner was flying down to get away from the City and relax. I could see the loving looks that you two exchanged as he held the car door for you when you first drove up."
"You have loved him as one might see in a fairytale. I appreciate how you have accepted me into your heart and into your home. My grandchildren are beautiful individuals."
She dozed off to sleep holding my hand. I covered her up with a quilt and walked back out to the porch as one tear then another trickled down my cheeks. Thank you God I thought. Thank you for this wonderful woman who raised the man of my dreams. Thank you for her love and kindness that she has shown to me and my children.
I'm glad that I had this time to cry because I had no idea that she would only live a few more days. I had to be strong for my children and for their father. Marie LaSalle had done more for me than any other person I had known. She had gathered my children into her heart into her bosom and into her lap and loved and held them when I couldn't. She walked the floor with crying children who were ill, teething or missing their mother. I owed her a debt that I could never repay.
Of course the children took her passing with great difficulty. I was comforted that Chris felt free enough to express his grief to me and to some extent in front of the children. I realized how much he had depended on her while the children were growing up. Her wisdom and own parenting experience helped us both in raising the children and helping/guiding them to make wise life choices.
We were stunned to lose Isler and Ms. Loretta within a few months' time of each other. Tammy and her wife made an annual trek to come for Thanksgiving and take a live tree from the farm home for Christmas. One holiday we all met in New Orleans to spend time with Pride, Laurel and her family. Brody, Sabastian and Plame also flew in with their spouses. Once again our timing was perfect as Pride was hit by a street car the next spring. Chris took his death hard as well. "King was the father I always wanted" Chris told me on the way back to 'Nola for the funeral. The church overflowed with mourners as this 'king' of New Orleans was remembered.
Several months later we sat on the front porch watching a deer and her fawns go down the trail to the creek. "Why are you smiling 'Butch' " I asked?
"I was just thinking how happy you have made me" he responded.
"Guess it's a good thing I let you catch me as I tried to scale that wall at the clinic huh?" Smiling he pulled me into his arms and reminded just who got the better deal of that encounter.
Thank you Shalita and Lucas for bringing these wonderful characters to our television screen
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