A/N-Sorry for taking so long but this chapter was a hard one. I wanted it to be an important one, In the storyline, Sherman and Mildred has 'adopted' Walter and his family , Sherman would have anyway as much as he feels about Walter but I had Sherry, Sherman's daughter from the show die in a car crash with her son, Cory and husband, Bob and I realized that I never did really show the grief they would have experienced, so this is a reflective chapter.

*Tissues are needed*

Sherman was sitting at the far right end of Alan's stable with his paint set put up, he was slowly painting the stable scene. 3 white horses, the first one inside the first stable, the 2nd one in a middle stable and has his head lowered eating the hay on the stable floor and the last horse closet to him standing proud and strong. A window is letting light in from each stall. An old map is nailed up on the wall in the last stall, Sherman looked up and saw the bird house nailed on a tall post right outside the window of the horse in the middle and he paints it.

He heard the large paneled doors open at the left end of the stable and he smiled when he saw his wife , Mildred quietly walk in. She closes the door and saw her husband painting so she doesn't say anything, just puts a small smile on her face and she walked around the hay stacks to get to Sherman. She saw the pitchfork in her way so she puts it up against a small round bale of hay then she came to a cart full of apples, she smiles and shakes her head then just walks around it. She finally gets to him and pulls up a small square bale of hay but doesn't say a word, she leans over and looks at the painting and she smiles then asks, "Nice painting, what are you going to call it?"

Sherman finishes the bird house and he looked around then said, "Steed stable."

She nods her head then grows quiet while her husband begins the outline of the second horse then he finally asked her, "Did Alan call you?"

She nodded her head then she said, "He was worried about you, are you upset?"

Sherman looked at her and he softly said, "Naw, he was just worried."

She looked at her husband then said, "You had his son come get you at the crack of dawn and come out here, why didn't you ask Sunshine or somebody else?"

He puts down his brush then he said, "Oh, I just wanted to be by myself and they would have just wanted to hang around like some worried mother cat."

She patted his hand two or three times then she asked him, "You're thinking about her aren't you? " She asked him in such a soft voice that if he wasn't there, he wouldn't have heard her.

"Yes, I am. I always do."

Sherman nods his head then he said, "Sometimes, I just have to get away with thoughts of her and today...well..."

Mildred then said, "She was only ours for a while Sherman but we have some good memories."

Sherman gives a small chuckle then he said, "She wasn't even supposed to be here."

Mildred smiles and she takes her husband's aged hand and they begin the memories together.

February of 1930-

On one very rare day on a cold February, Sherman sits in his chair smoking a cigar, he relaxed and watched the lazy rings of smoke as they float up into the air. He laid his back into the deep, billowy fabric of the chair and he said, "Ahhhhh..." He puts his feet up on the stool and he closes his eyes then Mildred comes in the room, Sherman looked up at her and he smiled, then he said. "This is the first day off that I have had in a while, I'm sure glad I get to spend it with you." He reaches up and took her hand then he noticed that she held a small gift wrapped package in her hand, in a pretty red paper with a second hand gold bow she found somewhere because Sherman knew there wasn't anything like that in the house.

He tapped the present then asked, "What's this? We just had Christmas and it isn't anywhere near my birthday so ...what is it?"

She smiles and gave it to him then said, "It's a I love you present. Open it."

He took the little box and took the lid off, he saw some crumpled white paper off then his eyes widen and he lifted up a little blue blanket and a baby pink rose blanket and his heart beats like a train in the middle of a dessert and he asked, "Wh-wh-what's this?"

Mildred smiled and she said, "Well, they are blankets for either our son or daughter."

He puts the blankets down and the box and he took her hands and she sat down on the stool in front of him and he asked, "You're pregnant?"

She shook her head then she said, "I think it must have been at Christmas."

He grabbed her by the neck and he kissed her then she said, "I'm sure we'll have this one, I waited long past when we lost the last one to tell you."

He looked at the still tiny stomach and he asked, "How far along are you?"

Tracks of tears come down her face and she wiped them away then she told him, "Three months."

He gently pats her stomach and pulls her on his lap and they both laugh.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Two months later, Mildred's little blooming stomach has a bud on it. The door opens and in comes Sherman, almost stumbling on his feet, so tired out that he is almost falling asleep on his feet and somehow he shuffles over to his favorite chair and flops down in it. Mildred goes over and closes the door, she goes over and kisses her husband and asks in a soothing tone, "Bad day?"

He looks up at her with one eye and he says as she starts massaging his shoulder, "Not really, just extraordinary busy. Seems like everybody in three counties came by with some ailment, broken bone or expecting a baby ..." He looks at her and smiles then says, "Except you, but your time will come." She smiles and stops the massaging then turns to go into the kitchen then a knock comes at the door and she turns and goes to it and there stands a tall brown headed woman with brown eyes and she said,

"Hi Mildred."

Mildred smiled an said, "Hi Patricia, what's going on?"

Patricia points behind her with her thumb then said, "My mother called and needs my help on the 3rd floor, can you leave the door open so you can hear Henry?"

Mildred smiled and said, "Sure."

Patricia looked at Sherman nearly passed out from exhaustion and she said, "Hi Sherman."

Sherman barely smiles and he said, "Hi Patricia."

Patricia leaves to go see about her mother and things go normal, she goes to the stove to make a simple meal for supper. Then about five minutes later, she hears a little boy holler,

"Mrs. Potter!"

Mildred puts down her wooden spoon and she goes to the door and asked, "What is it Henry?"

The little boy said in a frustrated voice, "My tricycle is stuck!"

She smiles and looks back at her husband and said, "I'll be right back Sherman."

Sherman waves at her and she turns and goes down the hall and she started to go down the steps, she doesn' t see the tanned Lionel toy train and her ankle falls over it and she goes falling down the long line of stairs. She screamed and Patricia ran to the railing above her and looked down and Sherman came running and he sees her and his heart drops as he sees his love laying deathly still.

A few hours later, Sherman is impatiently waiting in the waiting room, which was really a waiting area back in the depression era days and a doctor comes in the room. Sherman looks up at him and he said, "Doctor Miller."

The doctor looks at him and gives a half assed smile then he said, "Sherman." The doctor shifts his feet from left to right and he has a uncomfortable look on his face then Sherman said, "Come on doctor, give it to me straight, how's my wife?"

The doctor then sighs then said, "She'll be all right Sherman..."

Sherman catches what he left off and he asked, "The baby is lost Sherman."

Sherman sat down with the wind kicked out of him then the doctor sat down beside him and he said, "But that's not all Sherman." He places his hand on Sherman's shoulder then quietly tells him the rest of the bad news.

A little while later, he goes into the room where Mildred laid in bed. She has a bed curtain drapped around her bed to give her some privacy since there is 3 more beds on the left side of the room where she is and 4 on the right side of the room. She looks at her husband and he goes and hugs her close then he sat up and looked at her and said, "Mildred, I have something to tell you."

She then said through gasps of breath, "I know, I...lost the...baby."

He smoothed down her hair and he cried then said, "I'm sorry sweetheart...but that's not...all."

She looks at him then he takes a deep breath then said, "Your body...soemthing happened...they don't think..."

He really doesn't have to say any more words, they just hold on to each other and cry their hearts out to grieve.

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Back in the last week of December, 1965, Sherman looked at his painting that he is doing of the stable and looked at the sturdy doors that Mildred came in and looked up at the moose antlers over the door and he smiled a bit then said,

"But that isn't the end of the story, is it?"

Mildred takes hold of his arm, rubs it then said, "No, it isn't"

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It is now a year later from when young Mildred and Sherman lost the baby, it is Spring time and they are on a picnic, Sherman has head laying in his wife's lap, she had a dandelion in her hands, she blew on it and the white flowers from it, fly in the wind to create art in the sky. She smiles as she tried to touch them, she looked down at Sherman and she said,

"Sherman?"

He still keeps his eyes closed but he said, "Hum?"

She takes in the fresh air that surrounds them then she said, "I'm going to have a baby."

He twists his head then said, "That's fine." He puts his arms under his head then a few minutes later, he pops open his baby blues and asked in a high-octane voice, "What?" He jumps up on this feet then bends down to face her and he said, "I thought the doctors said you couldn't get pregnant."

She smiled and said, "The doctors said, they didn't think I couldn't get pregnant again but...I guess they were wrong."

Sherman stood up and threw his hat up in the air and he lets out a WHOOP! then he helps his wife up and asked, "How far along?"

She beams and pats her belly then said, "Five months, I was so scared to finally admit it for so long but it is real, I finally felt the baby move yesterday."

He puts his huge hand on her belly then asked, "What do you want?"

She shakes her head then said, "I don't care Sherman, I really don't care; I just want a healthy baby."

He lets out a country-wide smile then said, "I want a girl, a girl that looks like her momma."

She puts her arms around his neck and they share a kiss then they twirl each other around on that lazy Spring day.

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Four months later on July 4th, Mildred is lying around, resting for Sherman won't let her do much else. She has on a light, white cotton sundress but even having on a lightweight dress and the windows open to let in an almost non-existent breeze, she still wipes sweat off her forehead. She hears the door open and she looks up and sees her husband come in with a cartload of groceries and he looks at her then asks, "How are you? Is anything wrong? what's happening?"

She rolls her eyes and she said, "Sherman, I'm fine."

He puts down the sack the sack then he said, "Well, something could have happened since I left." "In twenty minutes?"

He looked at her with a twinkle in his eyes and he shrugs his shoulders and said, "Well..."

He starts going through the groceries and he said in a sarcastic tone, "Well, things are getting better in this depression, I was able to buy coffee, a lb. of oats, sugar; bread and sugar and oranges and real soap! I think next week we can buy some butter..."

Mildred looked at her husband and said in a low voice, "Sherman."

He just goes around putting the grocies up and said, "You want me to make a sandwich for supper? We'll have a big breakfast with the oranges and oats; have some coffee also"

She looks at him and said, "I think we'll eat at the hospital."

He finally looks at her and cocks his eyebrow and asks her, "Why?"

She took a big breath then said, "Because my water just broke."

He wastes no time in getting his hat back on again and goes to help his wife.

Back in 1965-

Sherman and Mildred laugh and he said, "I think I broke record time in getting you down to that truck."

They laugh some more than Mildred said, "And that wasn't the last of the fun."

Back in 1931-

Twelve hours later, Sherman finally walked into Mildred's room and he looks on at her holding a baby. He carefully sat down on the edge of the bed and Mildred looked at him and she said, "Meet your daughter Sherman."

He finally seems to start breathing again and he leans in, pats her little hand and listens to her softly coo then he asked, "Did you check her fingers and toes?"

Mildred laughs and she kisses the top of her little girls head then said, "Yes, I did Sherman."

Then he asked, "What do we name her? Can't call her filly."

Mildred shifts the baby around a bit then she said, "I was thinking of Sherry."

Sherman runs the name around in his mind then he said, "Sherry Potter, sounds fine to me."

Mildred and Sherman kiss over baby Sherry.

Then they watch their daughter grow up over the years, her first crawl and walk, they listen to her first words, running and playing with the neighborhood kids. The watch their baby grow into a child, going to school.

Back in 1965-

"You remember that time when we could FINALLY afford to go on a family vacation to St. Louis?" Sherman asked Mildred and Mildred nods her head with tears in her eyes and Sherman asked, "Wasn't the name of that place, that confectionary shop we went into named "La King?" Mildred nods her head and smiles as they remember together.

"Boy, I'll never forget it, she was Misty's age I suppose, and when she walked into that shop; she ran straight up to the candy section, her eyes popped out when she saw the chocolate strawberries...chocoalte grapes and apples..."

Mildred then said, "She loved that chocolate castle, it was so detailed with peaks, window, the little door and it was piped with that white icing." Sherman smiles and said, "Yeah, and they had a pink bow on it then when she found out they were having a contest to give away that castle! And she made us put our names in the candy pot! And out of 1500 names, she won ! She was prouder than a speckled spotted pup who won the blue ribbon!"

Mildred then said, "Then she saw the bowl of gum balls and the three little piles of pink, yellow and dark-colored macaroons..." Sherman nods his head then said, "Don't forget the chocolate bunnies, one with a red bow tie..." Mildred finishes that sentence, "And the other one wearing a little bell! Oh my! Then she saw all the other candies and peppermint sticks in the display case! Then the salamine chocolates which were the most expensive chocolate in the place Then she saw the chocolate bark but then she eyed the strawberry cupcakes, the roses cupcakes, the carrot cupcakes. The apricots dipped in chocolate!"

Sherman nods his head then said, "I seem to recall the silver balls dipped in something but then next to them was that chocolate bouquet."

Mildred nods her head then she said, "There was so much chocolate but she finally settled on the strawberry and one of the roses cupcakes, she won the castle, that was enough."

The both nod their heads at the pleasant memory then Mildred said, "I think we both remember that SO well because that was the first time we really saw her that excited."

They look at each other and Sherman said, "She was a good child."

Mildred stood up and she looked around then said, "You better finish your painting, it's going to be suppertime in a few hours and Sunshine will call the Calvary out on both of us."

Sherman finishes the stable, he paints the haystacks laying all round him and to be a little whimsical, he paints a needle in a haystack in one of them. He signs his name at the bottom of the painting and as he cleans the brush, he asked Mildred. "Is that place still open?"

Mildred thinks on his question then asks, " 'La King'? Yes, because Laura and Minnie just took their boys to it last summer"

He looks at her with a twinkle in his eyes .

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A few days later in the last few days of 1965, Mildred, Sherman, Walter and Sunshine stand back and watch Misty and Kim excitedly going over the same display case that Sherry stood at and they drool at all the candle and a few extras that wasn't made when Sherry was that age. marshmallow chicks in rows of three. The first row is of yellow chicks, then green chicks, pink chicks and red. Chocolate guitars and chocolate bagels on a tray.

A/N-There is a chocolate story like the one I described, it is called 'La King' and it's in Galveston, Texas. But they also serve ice cream. Go check it out, it's great!

Please send me reviews to let me know what you think of this remembrance chapter.

Sand n' Sable