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| Liana Moses |
Things were still going well. Everyone seemed to be very happy. Especially Daniel. He had been counting the days until graduation. He and Liana Moses dated all through high school and had fallen in love. Delia knew it wouldn't be long before Daniel proposed to her.
When Daniel told Delia he had proposed and Liana had accepted, she wasn't at all surprised, in fact she was delighted! Her young man would soon be starting his own family. She was thrilled to think that she and Francisco might soon have grandchildren. And now she would have a daughter-in-law to do 'girl' things with. How wonderful!
Francisco was working late that night,
more meetings to help pay for the graduation party and those yet to come. Delia
went to bed glowing with Daniel’s announcement. She couldn’t wait until Francisco got home to tell him. They had a wedding to help plan and she was
finally going to have another female in the family and she really did like Liana! Delia fell sound asleep very quickly with a big smile on her face and a
happy heart.
The next morning when Delia woke up Francisco wasn’t in
bed. She figured he got up early to fix breakfast to make up for working late. She
called out and he didn’t answer so she went in search of him so excited she
could barely stand it. Then, she saw a
snowman in the garden. Curious. It wasn’t there when she went to bed. When she walked out to investigate, Delia found
Francisco passed out on the ground almost completely covered with snow.
They determined he must have come home and got ready for bed because he was dressed in his robe. Then for some unknown reason, he went outside and locked himself out. Why he went outside, they will never
know.
Delia rushed to his side, but she
was definitely too late. He was a
ghastly purple and frozen solid. Delia
went numb. She couldn’t understand what
could have caused this. Her joy quickly
turned to frozen black grief. They buried her sweet Francisco next to her
mother in the garden and said their goodbyes.
Everyone was grief stricken.
Delia was in mourning and all she seemed to do was cry. She didn’t want to do anything but just sit
in the rocker and stare. The movement
of the rocker somehow soothed her while she tried to decide how she could move
on.
Then the memories of how it was for
her when she lost her mother as a teen brought her abruptly to the present and she thought
about her boys. She remembered that her
mom lost her husband when Delia was a very young child, so young that Delia had
no memories of him. She couldn’t imagine
how her mother did it. Maybe that was the cause of her mom’s obsession in the
basement.
Delia had planned at some
point to spend time reading some of the diaries and clippings her mom had but
never got around to it. She was too busy with life and frankly, she was
a bit afraid of what it might say. Then she got caught up in the entire potion
making ordeal anyway. She had very little time for that lately with four – now three – people to care for.
That is when she turned the corner. The boys still had one parent where she had none after she lost her mom. And they had the benefit of a loving father while she hadn’t. She couldn’t abandon them now. She decided right then that she needed to get a grip. She now had to be both mother and father to the boys even though they were nearly grown and she couldn’t lose herself and do that. It was settled.
She helped them cope with their
loss as much as she could. They cried
together and held each other until the pain would temporarily subside. She told Daniel the best thing he could do
was to go ahead with his marriage to Liana.
Love is precious; you should cherish every single day and not let it slip away when you find it.
Go back to Chapter 18
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