Stacy Matthews - Dear Mary 01 - Think Twice Before You Order by Stacy Matthews Read Free Book Online Page A

Mom’s
death. I didn’t want him to feel as though he had lost his wife and daughter.
That was the first run in I had with the E-Mafia personally. They stopped by
Dad’s house before I went back to New York. They wanted to let me know they
would make sure Dad had plenty to eat, and would take care of cleaning the
house, laundry, and those types of things. I knew better than to try and talk
them out of it, so I tried to make arrangements to pay them. That failed as
well.
    I should have made more of an effort to see Grandpa during that year, but
my attention was so focused on Dad. I had tried to keep Grandpa in the loop on
Dad’s condition. Most of the time I had to leave a message, I’m not sure if he
didn’t want talk to me, or if it was too upsetting for him. When Mrs. Bartley
called and said that I needed to get back to Edwardsville as soon as possible,
I asked her to make sure Grandpa knew what was going on. I didn’t make it back
before Dad died and asked Mrs. Bartley to call Grandpa and let him know Dad had
died. I called Grandpa later that evening and asked if he would like to go to
the funeral home with me to make the arrangements. He said no. I didn’t know if
he would or not but I thought he should at least have the choice, and I wanted
him to know I wasn’t going to close him out of my life like Dad had.
    I felt so sorry for Grandpa. He must have had a million different
feelings hitting him all at once. His son was dead. Why did they waste all
those years being mad at one another? Why did both of them have to be so hard
headed? I would have loved to have him at the funeral home with me, but I
didn’t want to push him, and knew he had enough to deal with. I decided then I
was going to make a real effort to get to know Grandpa better. How I was going
to do it, and if he would be willing to participate was something I would have
to figure out later. I was hoping we would get a chance to spend some time
together at the visitation and funeral.
    During the visitation Grandpa did say hello, gave me a hug, and said he
was sorry for my loss. He didn’t act much different at the funeral and that
truly upset me. He’s the only living family I have left, and there were a few
people there I felt closer to than my own Grandpa. I tried to convince myself he
was just too upset about his only child dying. I stayed in town after the
funeral to get the estate in order, and put the house up for sale. I thought
with me being in town that long, we would get the chance to spend some time
together.
    Putting that house up for sale was one of the hardest things I’ve ever
had to do. The most important parts of my life took place there. How are you
supposed to sell that to someone else? At first I was going to sell it myself,
but I know me, and decided it would be best for an agent to sell the house.
What with me living in New York, there really wasn’t any way I could keep the
house. After all I will be able to keep all of the wonderful memories in my
heart and head. I was so busy dealing with all of the estate business it didn’t
occur to me until I got back to New York that Grandpa hadn’t come by the house.
I thought maybe he would have wanted something to remember his son. That was
the start of our weekly phone calls. When I asked him if he wanted anything of
Dad’s he said no, he had plenty of pictures and things from Dad’s childhood
that Grandma had saved. We talked for about forty-five minutes. I wanted to
make sure that he knew just because he and Dad had not gotten along or talked,
didn’t mean he and I couldn’t get to know one another again.
    Getting to know Grandpa has taken longer than I had thought, but I’m glad
I’ve kept at it. He’s not as cold as I thought he had become. Before their
fight, Grandpa and I were pretty close. It’s been almost a year that we’ve been
talking, and it seems like he has loosened up, actually he’s pretty funny. He
tells me about all the fishing trips he and his friend