Chapter 25 - MARGARET’S DEATH
Margaret outlived Richard by four years.
After his death she became quieter.
Not transformed.
Quieter.
She lived independently until eighty-seven.
Then assisted living.
Lily visited occasionally.
By then their conversations were ordinary.
Weather.
Books.
Daniel.
Claire.
At one lunch Margaret overcooked chicken.
Lily looked at it.
Margaret said:
“Don’t.”
Lily laughed.
Old family food symbolism had become annoying enough to joke about.
Margaret died at eighty-nine after pneumonia complications.
Lily attended.
So did I.
Daniel stood beside Claire.
Our old family configuration without being an old family.
Margaret left Lily her pearl earrings.
Lily kept them.
Objects are not guilty.
She wore them once to a work conference.
No emotional ceremony.
I asked:
“Do you think Margaret changed?”
Lily said:
“Some.”
“Enough?”
“For what?”
Exactly.
People always ask if change is enough as though there is one scoreboard.
Margaret became safer.
More honest.
Less controlling.
She never repaired everything.
No one can.
May you like
Consequences remained.
That was real life.
