It was a smaller crowd for Thanksgiving than usual. My mother and I prepared all the sides, my husband smoked the turkey, and my grandmother made a couple of her famous desserts. As we were warming up the food, my aunt went to get my grandfather.
He is stronger than the last time I saw him. He sighed with relief to be able to sit down in the chair that has been his for more years than I can remember (it has survived several recoverings and repairs). More than three weeks had passed since he'd last just sat in his chair.
My grandmother pulled up a chair beside him and started to cry. My grandmother who lost her mother at 5 years of age. Who was given to the neighbors to be raised. Who survived the Great Depression. Who lost a husband during WWII. Who was a widow at 20 -- while she was 6 months pregnant. Who married my grandfather three years later. My tough grandmother who never cries... cried.
It makes me tear up just thinking about it.
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