Chapter Twenty-Five
Maisy’s own heart shot to her throat, making it difficult to swallow as she rode with her mother to the hospital. Grams hadn’t seemed feeble. The thought of possibly losing her grandmother so soon after her father terrified Maisy.
“Maisy,” her mother said, reaching for her hand while keeping her eye on the road. “Don’t panic.”
“How can I not?” she cried. “This is Grams.”
“What happened?” Patrick asked from the backseat. He sounded scared, too, all the news he was eager to share forgotten in light of what had happened to their grandmother.
“Thankfully, Lloyd was with her,” their mother said. “Eileen said she wasn’t feeling all that great after their bridge game. Lloyd told me he thought something was wrong earlier when she made a couple of foolish mistakes in bidding, which she never does.”
“Did she lose the game?” Patrick asked.
“I don’t think it mattered,” Maisy told her brother. “What matters is your grandmother and not some silly card game.”
“Not so silly,” their mother inserted. “Lloyd and Eileen take their bridge seriously.”
“So, what happened after the game?” Maisy asked, fighting hard not to bombard her mother with questions.
“Lloyd went back to Eileen’s apartment, and thank goodness he did. Stubborn as she is, Eileen insisted she was fine when she clearly wasn’t. She finally admitted she had this funny feeling.”
“Funny feeling?” Maisy repeated.
“In her chest,” her mother added. “Well, you can imagine that got Lloyd’s attention. He wanted her to go to the hospital right then and there, but she preferred that they wait.”
“Why in the name of heaven wouldn’t she go?” Maisy demanded. She wanted to shake her grandmother for not listening to what her body was telling her. Grams’s stubbornness might have cost her her life.
“You know how your grandmother doesn’t want to make a fuss. She was afraid there would be this hullabaloo over nothing. Something must have happened about thirty minutes later, because she suddenly looked at Lloyd and said maybe he was right and she should be checked out after all.”
“Thank God,” Maisy breathed.
“Did she have a heart attack?” Patrick asked. “Tyler’s grandpa died from a heart attack, and he was really sad when he told me about it. His grandpa was at every baseball game, remember?”
“I do,” their mother answered.
“Did Grams have a heart attack?” Maisy repeated her brother’s question.
“By the grace of God, no. She got to the hospital before there was any serious damage to her heart. As soon as they arrived at the emergency room, she was taken in for an examination. Lloyd called me, and I rushed to the hospital with Sean.”
“It wasn’t a heart attack?” Maisy asked, relief washing over her like a tsunami.
“The heart specialist found three blockages. This morning, Eileen went in for surgery and the cardiologist put in three stents. The procedure went as well as can be expected, and she’s currently resting comfortably.”
“What are stents?” Patrick asked.
“They’re a device the surgeon puts into the major blood vessels leading to the heart,” their mother explained.
“The stents widen the artery so that the blood can flow freely.” As she finished the simple explanation, Sophie pulled into the hospital’s parking garage.
“There’s likely more technical language, but that’s my understanding of what was done. ”
“Can we see her?” Maisy asked, needing to see her grandmother for herself before she would be able to ease her worries.
Her mother nodded. “But only briefly. The procedure was this morning and she’s still pretty much out of it.”
“I’ll only stay a few minutes.” Just long enough to be sure her grandmother would recover and be back to normal soon.
“Lloyd has been wonderful,” her mother continued. “He didn’t leave her side the entire time. I was the one who had to send him home last night. Then he was back before I arrived this morning.”
“You should have let me know,” Maisy cried, upset that she’d been left in the dark while this was happening to her family. She should have been with Grams. Instead, she was living the high life with Chase and completely clueless.
“It would have ruined your time in Chicago,” her mother stated, “and that’s the last thing your grandmother wanted.”
Her mother was right. It was hard to believe that while she was at the Cubs game her grandmother had nearly lost her life.
Knowing Grams was ill would have ruined the day for Patrick, too.
Her grandmother would hate it if she even suspected Patrick had been cheated out of being the batboy for his favorite team because of her.
“Can I show her my rookie Ernie Banks baseball card?” Patrick asked.
“Later,” his mother advised. “Your grandmother is sleepy from the anesthetic.”
“What’s that?”
“Something that made your grandmother sleep during the surgery, so she didn’t feel any pain.”
“I wouldn’t want Grams to be in pain,” Patrick stated.
“No one would,” Maisy said, as her thoughts whirled like a tornado across the Oklahoma panhandle. She was forever grateful that her grandmother would recover. Never again would she take for granted the time they had left together. This news about Grams’s heart had shaken Maisy’s world.
As they entered the hospital, Maisy’s mother led them to the floor where her wonderful grandmother rested.
“Can I see her, too?” Patrick asked. “I want to tell her I was a batboy for the Cubs.”
“We’ll let your sister go in for a few minutes,” Sophie told Patrick. “You can see her later. Is that okay, sport?”
Patrick sighed, and for a moment it looked like he might object, but then he nodded. “Okay.”
With her hand on the door, ready to enter, Maisy looked back at her mother and brother. “I won’t be long,” she promised.
Her mother nodded.
Maisy slowly opened the door that led to her grandmother’s hospital room. Grams lay on the hospital bed, her white hair spread out across the pillow. Her eyes were closed, and to Maisy’s relief, her coloring was good. She appeared to be sleeping peacefully.
Lloyd, ever faithful, sat in a chair next to her bed. Tears gathered in Maisy’s eyes as she noticed Lloyd holding on to Grams’s limp hand. He looked up as Maisy approached the bed.
“She’s going to be fine,” he whispered, as though he needed to convince himself as well as Maisy.
Maisy nodded, because the knot in her throat made it difficult to speak. When she finally felt like she could manage, she whispered, “Thank you, Lloyd.”
He nodded. “I have no intention of losing Eileen. Best bridge partner I’ve ever had.”
Maisy wasn’t fooled. Grams meant a whole lot more to Lloyd than being his bridge partner. She lost count of the number of weeks he’d courted her grandmother. Maisy enjoyed seeing the two of them together.
Before she left, Maisy gently pressed her lips against Grams’s forehead. Her grandmother’s eyes flickered briefly.
“Love you,” she whispered, “so much.”
Grams returned a weak smile.
Once home, Maisy was about to carry her suitcase up the stairs when her mother stopped her. “It might be a good idea to call your uncle.”
Maisy paused. “Any particular reason?”
Her mother’s eyes filled with tears as she nodded.
A sinking feeling hit the pit of Maisy’s stomach. She didn’t need to read the tea leaves to discern the news. Whatever this was surely revolved around Gallagher Jewels.
Maisy hated that she’d left her uncle in a lurch by taking off three consecutive days. Before she left, Uncle Fred assured her all was well and seemed pleased that she and Patrick had this wonderful opportunity.
Her uncle answered after the first ring, as if he’d been expecting the call.
“Did you have a good time in Chicago?” he asked.
“We did,” she said, with the sinking feeling her uncle was as reluctant to relay the news as she was to receive it. News she felt she already knew.
Her uncle paused, and Maisy heard him inhaling a deep breath. “Listen, Maisy, this likely comes as no surprise. I’ve talked this over with your mother and we both feel the best thing to do now is to put the store up for sale.”
A knot formed in Maisy’s throat at what this would mean for the family. “I…I suspected as much,” she whispered, because it was difficult to speak.
“We’re getting further behind every month.
Neither of us have taken much of a salary for weeks.
It’s no one’s fault that the store is failing.
It’s the economy, online sales, failing malls, and a hundred other things.
I was never the salesperson your father was.
I’ve done everything I could to make a go of it, but… ” His voice faltered.
“I know you have. As you said, this isn’t a surprise.” Maisy felt the need to reassure him. Selling the store was inevitable. Her only regret was that her uncle must feel like he’d somehow failed the family.
“You did all you could. You’re not to blame, Uncle Fred.”
“Your mother told me the same thing, and I’m grateful. The two of us have had several long talks about the business over the last few months.”
“Does Grams know?” Maisy asked, fearing the news might have been what prompted her grandmother’s heart condition.
“No. Your mother and I decided that it would be best not to say anything right away.”
Maisy was grateful they had made that decision—otherwise, it might have crippled her uncle with guilt.
Especially when he’d worked so hard to keep the store afloat.
The loss of the family enterprise complicated her family’s already tight financial situation.
They would need to sell the store for a profit, and that seemed highly unlikely, given the amount of debt they carried.
To be fair, Maisy wasn’t aware of the extent of the store’s losses. What she did see were the past-due notices on her uncle’s desk. The signs were obvious. The lack of foot traffic coming into the store and the infrequent sales were the handwriting on the wall.