Carrying on the Torch

Disclaimer: I don't own Good Luck Charlie

A/N:

Chapter 22 (An Old Woman's Memories)

"So let me get this straight, we're meeting up two times this month?" Charlotte asked as she sat on her bed, talking to PJ on the phone. She'd just been told that since the get together was planned for the 9th of December, and Christmas was just two weeks later on the 25th, that they were planning two major events. Aunt Diane wanted everyone to come to her place on Christmas, as she had the biggest house. "Did you already talk to Skyler about it?"

"Yes, just this afternoon." Charlotte nodded and lifted her eyebrows up, thank goodness Christmas would be at Aunt Diane's place. Skyler was already so busy planning everything for this initial reunion. She was actually helping Skyler with fixing up the guest bedroom for Nana's arrival, but that job was mostly finished as it was. "Is the room set up for Nana?" She hoisted herself from her bed and left her room, walking down the hall towards the guest bedroom at the end. Once she entered, she started to study it.

The room was very bright from the open window with light brown curtains in the middle of the far wall. The bed was positioned perpendicular to the wall and had freshly made brown sheets with a diamond design along the comforter. The closet was off to her left, the brown oak doors were sliding doors, open, revealing a bare closet with a shelf above the hanger bar. To her right was a large vanity dresser with a beautifully chiseled mirror. To her left just a bit was a large television stand with glass doors revealing several empty shelves for placement of figurines, cable boxes, or whatever else Nana wanted to put up. The stand had a large square that contained a silver television, just below the square was a small rectangular spot that held the cable box, which came with both DVR and On Demand.

"Yes, it's all set up for her. The girls actually went out to a place that makes these custom license plates…" She stepped backwards from the door and pointed up at the wall space above the doorway. There was a white license plate hanging from a nail and chain, which read Nana's Room. "They had them write 'Nana's Room' on it, so she gets to have some kind of feeling of personalization. Think that's a good idea?"

"I think she'll enjoy it. She does like to be treated like a Queen." Just then, Charlotte heard Petunia and Diane in the background, arguing over some small statue she didn't want to part with. It was a white angel statue, small, and usually fit on a porch. PJ heaved forth a heavy sigh and turned his head from the phone. "We may as well take it with us, I'm sure we can put it on the back porch!" Charlotte smiled with amusement and waited for him to return to her. "You don't know how much of a relief it is to have Aunt Diane down here right now."

"I imagine it takes some of the stress away."

"More than you can ever know. Glad to hear you guys got the room set up. How's planning for the reunion going?" Not too bad, every member of the extended family confirmed with Skyler that they wanted to show up. Teddy was going to get a lot of attention here.

"Fantastic, actually. Everyone's going to stay from come down Friday evening and check into a motel. We're setting something up in the park on the 9th, all day, and Skyler even got some barbeque restaurant to cater! The hospital, you know where mom used to work-"

"Same one that keeps trying to get Skyler to work there?"

"Yes."

"I know of it." Charlotte laughed and made her way to the stair railing overlooking the living room. Skyler was sitting on the couch, talking on a phone and holding a notepad in her hand. She was still trying to set everything up with the Famous Dave's BBQ restaurant, as well as setting up location in Washington Park. "What about them?"

"They're volunteering themselves to go and hand out information packs and pay for setting up some games, like a makeshift bowling alley. I think they're supposedly setting up a booth next to the BBQ booth. Then the local bar, suggested by Randy, is also providing drinks for the adults and soda for the underage. They're setting booth on the other side of the hospital employees." PJ snickered at the thought. She couldn't deny it was amusing, anyone getting sick off of barbeque and alcohol didn't have to worry, the doctors were right there! "I'm going to be at face painting booth with my cousin, Grace. Though seeing as how the youngest member of the family is Jennifer, I don't think many people are going to get their face painted."

"You'd be surprised, adults enjoy that stuff just as much as kids and teens do."

"I guess." She imagined PJ with lion makeup and grinned deviously. Perhaps they could have fun with this. "Anyway, how's the packing going? Have you gotten any views on the house yet?"

"Oh there's plenty of those, it's just the packing that is hell. Nana doesn't want to part with anything and already she's had to give up half of her stuff." Petunia shouted in the background, something about having lost everything and how her husband Hank would never have stood for this if he were still alive. PJ sighed clicked his fingers on some surface, possibly a countertop. "Grandpa would have told you to get rid of it all a long time ago! Besides, hoarding is not going to do any good, our house isn't that big! We have a baby too!"

"Well you taught them not to knock anything over right? I mean hey, just tell them not to touch anything."

"Yeah, and that works…" Charlotte laughed and started walking down to the living room. Skyler looked up from her notepad and smiled. She was glad to not have to worry about hiring a babysitter every time she left the house, but unfortunately, she still had to take care of Petunia. The lady was rather feeble in her old age. She was seriously considering that position at the hospital, since it would give her more time with family.

"Nana's going nuts over selling everything," Charlotte said while shaking her head. Skyler lifted her eyebrows as Charlotte moved next to her, holding her phone to her shoulder. "Whatever PJ and Aunt Diane can't save has to go."

"I can understand her fit, being older, she's much more sentimental."

"True." Some of those valuables were all Petunia had, and as for friends, there were none of those. Maybe she could invite her Grandparents to play bridge or canasta with her a couple times a week. She needed friends, that went without saying.

"How can my daughter and grandson treat me like this!" Petunia cried in the background. Charlotte lifted her eyes up as both PJ and Diane groaned. "After everything I've ever do-scratch that." She rose from her seat and started for the kitchen, clearing her throat to grab PJ's attention.

"Let me talk to Nana?"

"She's all yours! I need to discuss some things with Aunt Diane, anyway." Within seconds, Nana Petunia was on the phone, answering with earnest.

"Hello? Charlie?"

"Charlotte, Nana." Petunia corrected herself and Charlotte slowly sat down at the table. She moved her fingers along the smooth surface and took a courageous leap of faith, she really just wanted to try to calm the lady down if she could. She was nervous, cause she knew how high strung she was, but she had to do it. "I just wanted to ask how you're feeling right now?"

"Not good at all. I don't want to leave my home, but I can't stay alone anymore and I don't want to go to a nursing home. I have so many things I just don't want to leave behind…" Charlotte heard the woman's doorbell ring and frowned as Petunia let out a sad moan. "That would be the man here to collect the furniture. At least your brother's able to let me keep my precious animal figurines I collected as a child."

"I don't think PJ would want you to lose something that sentimental. I know it's tough, making all these changes in your life, Nana." Petunia sighed and Charlotte heard the sound of men grunting to lift something up. "What was that?"

"The couch. The perfectly good couch I've had since your mother was a baby. You know what's hardest about this transition? My husband died a few years ago so I feel like I'm doing this alone. He and I had so many years in this house, Charlotte. So many years. Everything here…he touched…everything here, filled with so many memories. God how I miss him." It had only been four years, nearly five, and when you were that age losing someone you had loved for such a long time, it hurt. Like hell.

She felt her heart drop as Petunia sobbed once. This could be the loneliest she'd ever felt, and there wasn't anyone that could make it better. "Nana, I know there isn't anything I can say to make this easier on you. I didn't know Popet all that well and I imagine he was a great man…"

"Oh god let me tell you! He was so sweet! We met when he was fresh into the Military." Charlotte leaned back in her chair and moved her arm across her stomach. She had no trouble listening to the woman's stories, especially if they made her feel better. After all, she felt better whenever she watched those videos with her family. Memories just had that power on people. "His recruiting officer was my father, can you believe that? I was working as a secretary for my dad when he came walking into the office. Our eyes met and, it was love!"

"How old were you, Nana?"

"Let's see, it was April of '57, I was 21. Hank was four years older than I was, so 24. He didn't go straight to my father's office like he probably should have, he stopped to flirt…" Charlotte laughed at the image of a young Hank trying to flirt with his boss's daughter just outside the office. What would have happened if the man walked out in that moment? "Dear, I could tell you a million stories about your grandfather, I'm sure you don't care to hear them from an old washed up has-been."

"I don't think you're washed up or a has-been." Petunia chuckled softly and exhaled.

"I see you didn't include 'old' in there."

"Well you are almost ninety." Charlotte smirked jokingly as Petunia laughed. "Anyway, I don't mind hearing your stories, I'd love to hear everything?"

"Really? Well if you say so…" She gave a nod of approval and closed her eyes as Petunia went on about the early days with Hank. The two really had been so in love, sneaking around together and running out on the town for a few years until he proposed to her. They had Diane, then Amy, and started out in a very small house, raising up two little girls. The military transferred their little family all over the world, from areas such as Alabama to places like Germany! They'd seen so many places, the love they had never seemed to die.

When the Vietnam war came about, Hank was sent to war while Amy and Diane were just ten years old. It was difficult on the family, but Petunia did everything she could to make her little girls happy while waiting for their father to return home. When he did, on Amy's sixteenth birthday, there had been great celebration. His vision had faded dramatically though, due to some gas, so he needed glasses at this point and retired from the military soon after.

The family settled in Colorado at some point of time afterwards, the last place they were stationed at, and that was where the girls met their husbands, William and Bob. Petunia didn't like Bob all that much, he was 'grungy' and too wild, but she was just happy that Amy found someone who made her happy. He did get a haircut upon her asking him to, that was at least one thing he did right.

Sometime in the early 2000s, they moved to Palm Springs, where Hank's father Randall was growing old and sick. The man's wife died in 1983, due to liver failure, so Randall was living alone all these years. It was this point where Petunia and Hank decided that if something ever happened to one of them, they didn't want to spend their dying years alone. In 2010, Randall passed away from natural causes, her mother passed away a few months later from a heart attack. When the accident happened in 2011, June 29th, Petunia and Hank had become gravely depressed. No one should ever outlive so many members of their family. When her father died just a couple months later, in September, their health started slipping further and further. They didn't like the fact that their family was so far away, but it seemed like no one wanted them around because in their old age, they'd become 'crabby old people'.

When Hank passed in 2019, she couldn't possibly feel more alone. The only relative that she didn't seem to outlive was PJ, Charlotte, and her daughter Diane, but none of them seemed to stay in touch with her.

"I don't want to be a burden on my family, Charlotte dear."

"You won't be, Nana." Charlotte's heart was breaking for her grandmother, the woman had seen so much sorrow in her last years. No one should ever have to go through all that when they get old, they should spend their final years happy. She smiled sadly and moved towards the refrigerator. "Nana, you're going to be happy now, all right? The whole family is getting together to see you and to see Teddy."

"Oh I just can't wait to see my great grandbaby!" She heard a very cheerful tone in the woman's voice, it brought a tear to her eyes. "Charlotte, thank you for listening…It means a lot."

"Of course, Nana. I can't wait to see you this weekend!"

"I'm looking forward to it. Also, what about your other grandparents?"

"Grandma and Grandpa Bosca? You'll love them! I bet they'll want to invite you over to play poker or bridge."

"Ooh, I do enjoy a good card game. I need to go, dear, I'm being called to the next room."

"Okay Nana, I'll talk to you later."

"I love you, dear."

"You too! Bye!" When she hung up, Skyler's head popped in from the room over. She grabbed a soda from the fridge and turned to Skyler.

"How was your talk with Nana?"

"Enjoyable, she told me all these things about Hank. You know, they were really in love." She hoped one day, whenever she married, she'd grow old with someone that she truly loved. Maybe they would make many memories together to cherish forever. Either or, she was happy to have made her Nana happier by letting her carry on down memory lane. Maybe this transition would be easier knowing she didn't have to go through it alone.

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