Chapter 15 - LENORA LOSES THE SUNDAY TABLE
The Corvane family had Sunday dinner at Lenora’s estate for thirty years.
After the wedding, I stopped going.
So did Ivy.
Lenora called it punishment.
It was boundary.
Then two cousins stopped too because they disliked how Ivy had been treated.
Another relative said family traditions should not be abandoned over “one ugly event.”
I answered:
“The tradition is optional.”
That sentence caused more outrage than the police report.
Apparently thirty years turns dinner into constitutional law.
Then Lenora sent a letter through counsel asking for supervised contact with Ivy.
I did not answer alone.
Dr. Hart reviewed.
Ivy was asked in simple terms.
“Do you want to see Grandma with another safe adult there?”
“No.”
End.
No court needed to force immediate grandparent contact absent a legal right and best-interest showing.
Lenora’s lawyers threatened a grandparent visitation petition.
They later advised against it.
The evidence from the wedding and planning messages was poor ground.
No case filed.
Then Lenora’s Sunday table shrank.
Not empty.
Some family still attended.
That was healthy too.
I did not demand loyalty tests.
If cousins loved her, they could see her.
I only required that Ivy not be discussed as bargaining currency.
One cousin violated that.
Lost access to me for a month.
Then apologized directly to Ivy:
“I said something about you that adults should not have said.”
No excuses.
I let that repair stand.
Family did not have to become all or nothing.
May you like
Lenora thought it did.
That was part of the problem.
