Disclaimer: This is an original story based upon the characters of Gilmore Girls. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit will be made from this story.

Author's Note: Thanks to all who have read and reviewed on the last few chapters. It means a lot to me—your comments help me so much. For the purposes of this story, I had to do a little tweaking. I am not sure when the play "Our Town," first made it's debut. That is pretty sad considering I was just in a production of Our Town! Anyway, for the purposes of this story, it debuted when it debuts in this story. I am also guessing Emily's age to be about sixty-seven when she died. This one's going to be a little shorter—sorry. Enjoy!

"The Playbill"

The next thing I picked up was wrapped in tissue paper and appeared to be an old worn playbill. Curious, I unwrapped it. It was from the play Our Town. What did this have to do with anything? I had to read Our Town in high school but I thought it was very boring. I had never seen the play. The playbill was old and worn but you could still see the gold lettering of "Our Town" on the front, and a sketch of a girl and a boy drinking sodas at an old fashioned parlor. What were the characters names again? I opened the playbill and Mom's letter fell out along with another worn piece of paper. I was interested in the playbill though, and looked at the sketched designs—different scenes from the play, there was an inner fold that had the words "Opening Night—World Premiere" on the top in gold letters. Wow—this would sell for a ton on e-bay. It took me a moment to see the date underneath—September 26, 1940.

September 26, 1940—wait a minute, I knew that date. September 26th was Mom's birthday—and she was born in 1940. This was interesting—I had a playbill from a play that premiered the night Mom was born…okay…why? I scrolled down the list of cast members, seeing if I recognized any family names. I didn't see any names I recognized. At the bottom of the cast list I found something interesting. I knew exactly what it was because I used to do the same thing when I was pregnant with Rory on my three ring binders when my tutors thought I was studying. Written at the bottom were names

Patricia Kelly Haines

Andrea Elizabeth Haines

Annalisa Lynnette Haines

Joseph Gregory Haines

Andrew Patrick Haines

Anthony Edward Haines

They were all crossed out, and then one was written in large letters at the bottom and circled

Emily Patricia Haines.

Suddenly, I realized what significance this playbill had. The handwriting was my grandmothers—my grandmother Patricia that I never knew. She had been at that play—obviously very pregnant and had chosen my mother's name. Now I remembered—Emily, the main characters name in the play was Emily. I reached down, picked up Mom's letter and opened it.

Hi,

I thought you might be interested in this. My mother went to this play on the night it premiered. She had been feeling very pregnant but very bored so against the advice of my father and the doctors she went to the premiere to get out for a few hours. The other paper is a page from my mother's journal detailing the events of that night. It was my favorite story growing up and she tells it so much better than I do. I didn't do very well living up to her expectations as you can tell. It is one of my deepest regrets.

I had never really been interested in my family history before. Growing up, I thought everyone's grandparents were like my gran. Grandma Patricia's portrait hung in the upstairs hall. She had been very beautiful. She had died before I was born—even before Mom had married Dad. Mom didn't talk about her very much, so I never knew very much about her. Now, I was very curious. I picked up the paper, opened it up and began to read.

October 1, 1940

As I write this entry, my four-day old baby girl lies sleeping in her bassinet. She is a little doll—absolutely perfect. While she is sleeping, I want to write the details of her birth. A new play "Our Town," has premiered by a Mr. Thornton Wilder. It premiered four nights ago and I wanted to go see it. I love going to the theater and was feeling so bored at home. Robert didn't want me to go, and Dr. Kenricks thought it was a bad idea too, but I begged, saying I would be a good girl and come home and rest afterwards. It was a five o'clock show, one of the earlier ones. I didn't want to go that early, but Robert said that was the only way he was taking me with him. We went to the play and it was absolutely magical—such a poignant message. At the end of the play, the main character—Emily, has died and has the opportunity to go back and live a day in her life over again. She chooses her twelfth birthday. It was heartbreaking how she realized that she did not live life to it's fullest when she was alive and at the very end, she cries out something like, "Does anybody realize how wonderful life is while they are living it?" A very strange feeling came over me then. Suddenly I knew I was having a girl—and I knew I had to name my little girl Emily. We left the play, and came home and in spite of my protests, Robert called the doctor to tell him about some heartburn I was having. Dr. Kenricks told us to come to the hospital and just before midnight our little angel was born—my Emily. As I sit here watching her now, I pray that the name I've given her will be a reminder to her through her whole life to appreciate life's gifts and relish every minute. I pray that when she does pass on one day that she will not have to revisit a day in her life to realize she did not appreciate it while she lived it. I hope and pray she does not have to live with that regret. My beautiful baby girl—I love her so much.

I folded the journal entry and placed it on the bed. I never knew that—how Mom got her name. Suddenly I felt very sad. Mom didn't strike me as the kind that loved life very much. I don't think she hated her life—but she didn't seem like she was very happy a lot of the times. I always wondered why she just couldn't be happy, couldn't enjoy life, couldn't relax even for a second. I never wanted to be around her because she was so cynical and condescending. I just felt sorry for her—what a life she led. She must have had so much regret when she died of things she wanted to do or be. Suddenly into my mind came all of our fights over the years—the times when I would hang up on her, the times I purposely wouldn't tell her things, or demean her. I remembered back to all the times I made fun of her in front of Rory and suddenly I could see Rory's face as Mom and I fought and the hurt she felt at having to choose sides. Suddenly—I realized for the first time my part in Mom's pain, in Mom's regret, and I felt very, very, ashamed.