"So, how did your little shopping expedition go today?" Jack asked his wife when he got home that evening.

"Pretty well." Abigail brushed the hair back from her ear lobes so that her husband could see the new earrings she'd put in. "Do you like these? I got some stuff for the kids too, plus that CD that's playing right now."

"Mm. They're very nice. So's the music." He hugged her from behind and kissed her neck.

After dinner, they cuddled together on the sofa watching television. Abigail dozed lightly in her husband's arms. After she put the kids to bed that night, she and Jack made love and then went to sleep with their arms around one another.

It was less than a month later when the telephone call came.

"My mom said my dad's had a massive heart attack and is in the ICU," Jack told Abigail. "I have to leave right away."

"I'll go with you," Abigail offered.

"You'd have to pack, and then there's the kids..."

"It won't take that long," Abigail assured him. Jack's parents, John and Dorothy, lived several towns over with their forty-two-year-old daughter, Sharon, who had Down's syndrome.

The Parrishes packed for several days and then left for the drive to the hospital, which would take several hours. It was completely dark by the time they reached their destination.

They awakened the children, who'd fallen asleep in the back seat, and entered the emergency room, where Dorothy and Sharon waited.

"Oh, Jack!" Tearfully, Dorothy went into her son's arms, and he embraced her.

"How's he doing? Still hanging in there?" Jack asked softly.

"Just barely," Dorothy replied.

"Can I see him?"

"They'll only let you back there for a few minutes at a time."

Abigail sat with Jackson and Julie and Sharon in the waiting room while Jack went into the ICU to visit his father.

"Mommy, is Grandpa gonna die?" asked Jackson.

"I sure hope not," Abigail told her son.

Jack was sobbing when he returned to the lobby. Abigail went to him and embraced him, and he clung to her and cried while the children looked on solemnly.

"I'm gonna have to stay here with Mom," he said after awhile. "I'll drive you and the kids back to the house."

"You're in no condition to drive," Abigail replied. "Just give me the keys and directions to the house. I'll come back first thing in the morning."

"You don't really know your way around here," Jack pointed out. "In the dark you'll get lost."

She had to admit that he was right. She took Jackson by one hand and Julie by the other and followed Jack out to the parking lot.

She and the children slept on the fold-out sofa in Jack's parents' living room that night. The following morning, Jack came for them early, at about six o'clock. "He passed during the night," he told Abigail. "Mom and Sharon and I were with him. Mom held one hand and I held the other."

"I'm so very sorry," said Abigail.

"Yeah." She put her arms around him and held him as she had the night before.

"Thanks," he said. "I needed that. I'm gonna be all right now."

She noticed that Sharon was with him. "I need to head over to the..." He had to choke back a sob. "The funeral home with Mom to make the arrangements. Will it be all right if I leave Sharon here with you and the kids?"

"Of course!"

"My Daddy died this morning," Sharon announced. "Mama and Jack and me were with him when it happened. He just closed his eyes and went to sleep."

"I know, sweetie," Abigail told her. "I'm so sorry."

"That's all right. Now there's gonna be a funeral with lots of flowers. I love flowers."

After awhile, Jackson and Julie awakened. "How come Aunt Sharon's here? And where's Daddy?" asked Jackson.

"Your Grandpa went to heaven last night," Abigail told her son. "Your Daddy had to go with your Grandma to the funeral home. That's why Aunt Sharon's here."

"A funeral home is where they take somebody when they die," Sharon added helpfully.

"But Mommy said he was in heaven now," said Julie.

"His spirit, the part of him that's really him, is in heaven. It's just his body that's at the funeral home," Abigail explained patiently. She was beginning to wish that other arrangements could have been made for Sharon.

After feeding the children cereal for breakfast, she turned on Nickelodeon for the kids ("Oh, goody! I love this show!" Sharon exclaimed) and settled in for the long wait for further news from Jack.