Epilogue
JESSICA PUSHED HER great-grandfather’s wheelchair onto the back lawn of the sprawling garden. Keeping pace with them, her sprightly great-grandmother.
The snow had fallen hard overnight. To Jessica’s mind, snow like this, rare though it was, was no playground for the elderly. Her great-grandparents, though, were no one’s idea of elderly. At the first hint of snow, they insisted on getting out there and enjoying it like children. According to Jessica’s grandmother, they had always been like this. Ninety-four and eighty-three respectively, they wore their ages loosely.
Wheelchair parked, Jessica helped her great-grandfather to his feet. She always had the sneaking feeling he got a kick out of getting her or one of her siblings or cousins to push him around as he was actually pretty nimble on his feet. The one time she’d suggested he might be faking his occasional lack of agility, his blue eyes had emitted such a twinkle that she’d understood why her great-grandmother had fallen in love with him all those decades ago.
Her great-grandmother, from whom Jessica had inherited her red hair, smiled at her husband as she slipped her arm into his. Her hair now pure white, the lines etched on her aged face suited her. You didn’t have to look hard at her great-grandmother to see the young woman who’d captured her great-grandfather’s heart.
With a wistful ache in her belly and chest, Jessica watched them walk companionably to the bench in the section of the garden they’d created to remember those they’d loved and lost through the years, including the baby who would have been her great-uncle.
They both kicked the snow as they walked. She watched them sit together, gloved hands clasped tightly, her great-grandmother’s cheek resting on the side of her great-grandfather’s shoulder, chatting in that easy way they always did that often sounded like it was in their own particular language.
So taken was she by the strange yet beautiful sight of a love that had lasted for generations that she didn’t notice the snowball hurtling towards her until it smacked into her shoulder.
It was impossible to tell which of her great-grandparents had thrown it—they were both doubled over with the familiar shared laughter Jessica knew she would never settle for anything less than when she found her own soul mate.