36) Time For Reconciliation
As she finally read the letter, Myra knew that Pete meant every word, and she had to admit to herself how much she'd missed the Thompson's. Even Betty had been a friend and an ally until she saw Tina for the first time, and although Myra hadn't been able to face Pete and John at the funeral, she'd still wanted to be there after her dad had told her about Betty losing the fight with cancer. Yes, Pete didn't know that John McQueen hadn't only been telling him news of Myra and the kids – he'd also told Myra news of the Thompson's once in a while.
As she laid the repaired letter back on the table, Myra realised that all the anger and resentment had completely disappeared from her heart during the reading, and had been replaced by pure sadness and regret for what could and what should have been, and she decided that she'd take the kids to see the Thompson's.
It couldn't be the following Saturday though, first she had to speak with her children, starting with Jacqui, Mercy and Tina, to hear what they thought about seeing the Thompson's.
Not surprisingly, Mercedes was the first one to speak after Myra told them what she felt was necessary for the girls to know. She was adamant that they shouldn't have anything to do with those people after the way they'd treated their Tina, and for the first time in years, Jacqui agreed with her sister. Tina, on the other hand, felt like her mum that there had been enough anger and that it was time to forgive and move on.
So the following Saturday Myra's lot took the bus to the new Thompson house where they met their 'new' family. The youngest children didn't really know much about what was happening and were just happy to get new playmates. John Paul and Harry hit it off right away, but Marie-Anne was a bit wary of Michaela's loud voice to begin with.
John's wife Linda had long beautiful hair and Carmel went straight to her and asked whether she could comb her hair and make braids and curls and the two of them spent the next three hours playing beauty saloon.
After looking shyly around the house, Tina sneaked into Pete's library where he found her looking through his Encyclopaedia Britannica and they ended up talking for a long time about history, especially the Norman Invasion. Mercy and Jacqui, on the other hand, stayed with their mother most of the time, both feeling unusually shy and insecure, and hardly said a word the entire day.
A week later, the McQueen's returned to the Thompson's and the same things happened again. And again the following week. It wasn't until they had been coming to see their father's family for over a month that Myra's two eldest daughters started to come out of their shells and they found out how much they had in common with their uncle John and their grandfather, who would tell them wonderful stories from their father's childhood, and it wasn't long before all of Myra's children started thinking of Michael as their common father, who had died.