Chapter 26 - JUDITH’S MIRROR
Judith died when Meadow was twenty-six.
Not suddenly.
Cancer.
Months.
Enough time for choices.
Meadow visited.
I did not.
My relationship with Judith never became one I wanted restored.
She respected that in later years.
Near the end, Meadow sat beside her bed.
Judith had lost much of her own hair through treatment.
She made one dark joke.
“Hair grows back, apparently not always.”
Meadow told me later she nearly left.
Then Judith apologized.
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
Meadow stayed.
They spoke about ordinary things.
School.
Work.
A man Meadow was dating.
Judith asked whether she could touch Meadow’s hair.
Meadow said yes.
Judith ran her fingers through it once.
Then stopped.
No speech.
No symbolic scissors.
No request for forgiveness.
After Judith died, Dustin asked whether Meadow wanted the old clippers.
Police had returned them years earlier after evidence retention.
Dustin had kept them locked.
Meadow stared at him.
“Why would you keep those?”
He admitted he did not know.
She said:
“Destroy them.”
He did.
Certified electronic recycling.
May you like
No dramatic burial.
Objects finish their work too.
