The Lost 8th Season
Rory typed up an obituary as Emily picked out table cloths and Lorelai talked with Mr. Kingston. Everyone had found their place, some little way to help out. It was just then they all knew they would be fine.
Emily was envisioning the first time she kissed him. Remembering how she thought his lips were carved by Michelangelo. How perfect they were. What a perfect moment. Standing right next to a trash can he proposed. She remembered how absurd it was. How he should have done it right at a nice restaurant. Then changing her mind and thinking it was the most romantic thing he could ever do. She loved him. She could never love anyone else quite like him.
Lorelai was remembering when she was 7. He had just come home from a 2 week long business trip and walked in the house set down his bags and immediately went to hug her. How her mother instantly told the maid to take them upstairs but he told her it was fine that he would get them. Then he pulled out of his bag a necklace, with a single pearl on it. And he said "Every time you do something amazing, every time you make me prouder than I've ever been I will add a pearl to this necklace." He added pearls alright. That night at dinner he pulled one out of his pocket when she asked him to "Please pass the salt." The necklace was full in less than a week. She insisted on wearing it everyday.
Rory was thinking about these last few years. How great of a grandfather he had been. How she dredged going to the club that first time, how much fun she had. How he had stuck with her when she decided to quit Yale. How he was always there to talk Odysseus and Hamlet.
Lorelai, Rory, and Emily are all standing around Richard's coffin with a bunch of other people who really don't care that much. To them he was just a college. He was just another funeral to attend and a chance for a career raise.
It was a late summer day in August but still cool. The sun was setting and the wind blew a gentle warm breeze on all of them. The birds chirping and the sunlight sparkling of each and every blade of grass it was more than a perfect day. It was a perfect ending.