The funeral home was nothing special. Having been here for a number of funerals through years passed, it was nothing new either. The funeral home director had practically watched Abby and I grow up. He did the funerals for my grandparents, many of their siblings, many of my aunts and uncles... and now my mother.
The flowers flooded from the main room into the hall and outer doorway. Normally I would find them beautiful, even at a funeral I could appreciate a good floral arrangement. Today though they just worked as a decorative mask for a sad situation. A bright and bittersweet ending to another chapter in life.
The funeral home was getting busy now. I had arrived an hour early to finish up some final details with the director, the first people started showing up about twenty minutes ago. My aunt was among the first handful of them.
Aunt Jewel, my father's only sibling had flown in from out of state to pay her respects. My sister and I had never really known her either. Since our father had died and she lived so far away we never really got the chance to get to know her. We never really had a connection to our father's side of the family at all actually. Our grandparents had both died young as well and neither were around when we were born. Aunt Jewel was the first person I saw as I walked out of the director's office though. She had been gingerly greeting people as they came inside. She had no idea how grateful I really was for that.
I approached her and greeted her with open arms.
"Aunt Jewel!" I wrapped my arms around her plump middle and gripped onto her shoulders as I hugged her tight. I held her close for a moment and inhaled deeply.
"Oh, Squirrel." She squeezed me back just as tight. She smelled like lavender and she radiated heat. 'Squirrel' is something my father had always called me, since the first time he saw me with my hair in a ponytail. It was fluffy and stuck out, like a squirrel's tail. From then on he called me Squirrel. My mother continued using the nickname as homage to my father. My mother and my aunt had remained in contact via mail, though neither ever made an appearance in the other's life.
I released my deep breath and I held her out at arms length. I had not seen her since I was nine years old, but she looked just like I remembered.
"Oh look at how much you've grown since I last saw you!" Aunt Jewel looked me up and down. "The last picture I got of you, you were in bed at the hospital holding your baby Lorrie!" All of her 'you's had extended endings... something that I guess slipped my memory.
"It's Lily actually." I chuckled a bit. And smiled a bit while I fidgeted with my curls.
"Oh, dear. Yes, I knew that. I, I'm sorry, it's just so close to my Johnny's Lorrie!" She flicked her wrist in my direction with an obviously fake chuckle.
"Johnny has a kid?" This was news to me. We met him one time. He came to visit once when I was sixteen. He was a 'geek'. Johnny and my sister were the same age, and I could hardly imagine my sister having children.
"Oh yes darling, two!" She clapped her hands together gleefully and her large blonde hair bounced in unison. "Lorrie, she's seven. The same age as your Lily, yes? And Becky, Rebecca. She's four. The kids were just about all we talked about, your mother and I. A couple of old granny hens, clucking about their new baby chicks." Her presence was really awesome. My mother had written so often that she knew enough to make it feel like she had always been there. It was even more welcome because my sister still had not arrived.
When Abby did finally show up, just before the service started, my aunt rushed right over and wrapped her arms around her. I knew she did not know right off hand what my sister looked like, but when she saw my reaction to her arrival, she could only assume that it was Abby. She gawked at Abby just as she had with me, saying how much she had grown and how beautiful she was. After a moment the two approached me.
Abby wrapped her arms around me and hugged me. I had not expected this, at least not before the service. We had not had the best relationship since our mother got sick, but if there was one thing that our mother taught us it was that if anyone had our backs, it was each other. She held me tight and Aunt Jewel lightly brushed my shoulder as she made her way to a seat in the other room. I listened to my sister's deep breaths and felt her heart pound against my chest. I noticed though that she did not smell like lavender. No, she smelled like something I had not smelled in quite some time. Abby smelled like 'grass'. At least that was what we liked to call it. I was not aware that this was something she had picked up again.
We used to hang out and smoke in ourcellar at mom's when we were teenagers, when could bond over things that weboth knew we should not be doing. Thatwas what made it so great though, knowing that we would go down together if wewere caught. Under the circumstances, Idid not mention to her that I could smell it. Instead, I looped my arm through hers and we made our way to our seatsin the front row. And together, we cried. Together, we said our last goodbyes to thefirst person ever to tell us "hello."
