Five: Grandma
"March the 23rd, 1450
Dear grand-daughter,
There are some things I think your mother would have wanted you to have. Could you visit me and the children? You would see Tomkin's and Bluebell's youngest baby, too. They call him Buddy, but I hope they are going to think up a better name to be put into the books.
The lilies are in bloom.
With love,
your own Grandma Maggot."
What things? thought Eowyn. Her mother had been a farmer's daughter and died unmarried, she surely hadn't owned much. Besides, Eowyn already had some mementos: letters, a pocket mirror, to say nothing of the completely unused linens, locked in a bridal chest that was never needed, and embroidered with L.B. for Lily Brandybuck, a woman who never was. And the locket, originally a gift from Meriadoc to his first love, now, a secret memento that had followed Marron into his exile. Was there something more? A diary? Did Grandma still keep the famous red dress somewhere, and could it possibly fit Eowyn? "The lilies are in bloom." Over the years Grandma had collected all possible kinds of lilies in her flower-garden, so that they bloomed early and late. If snow was not on the ground, the lilies were likely to be in bloom in her garden. The other Maggot children were all alive: Tomkin, the heir, Rose and Daisy, Matt, Will and Cal. So of course the widow matron would love most the one long lost; Lily of the tragic fate. Tomkin had a half dozen 'babies' already (Grandma called her grown children 'children' and their offspring 'babies', after the logic that she was not old yet...) but Eowyn would always be her special favourite.
Her father did not object to the visit; in this respect her adoption was incomplete, so she had actually had three pairs of grandparents as a child (the Brandybuck ones had now passed away), and they all had doted on her: The Bolgers because she was their eldest grandchild, the Brandybucks because she was their only grand-daughter, the Maggots because she was all that was left of their darling Lily. On the last day of March, Eowyn took the ferry to East Farthing, where Tomkin waited with the cart.
'And how is our Princess?' Uncle Tommy had named her this after hearing Merry's story of Éowyn of Rohan.
'Fine, how is Bombadil?' Eowyn in turn had always insisted that Old Maggot had named his heir after his ancient friend.
'Bet you can't remember the names of all my little ones!'
'Let's see... Rosemary, Tim, Galahad and Galadrella*, Tamlin... and Buddy.'
'Wrong! We put the baby in the books as Gimli.'
'Gimli?! Misspelling Galadriel is one thing, but giving your baby a dwarven name is another!'
'Grandma loved it.'
'I bet she did, after you frightened her with "Buddy".'
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*Elven-style names were in fashion in the Shire after Merry, Sam and Pippin shared their experiences and Bilbo's translations from elvish were spread out. (By the way, do not be offended if your name happens to be Buddy. Eowyn and her grandma dislike it because it is not traditional, and because Rosebud is a girl's name.)