Chapter 23
GAYLE
All these people were here for her. Gathered in the Sweet Life Café, friends from all around the island had turned up wearing bright clothes – pinks, mauves, turquoise, bright yellow – as per the part of the invite she’d actually got right.
And it wasn’t until this moment she realised how emotional she was going to feel, especially seeing Susanna and Addie come inside.
Last night, Addie had wanted to know all about the puddings that would be served today.
In fact, after Susanna went to bed, they’d talked at length even though Gayle was fast running out of energy and had had to fight her tiredness and nausea, if only to treasure the time with her niece.
They’d talked recipes, the trials and errors making various puddings, and Gayle had embraced wholeheartedly the feeling that Addie had never lost the joy of baking.
She hadn’t totally ruined that for her niece, and as they’d chatted she’d brought to mind the memories of Addie coming into the café, excitedly pulling on one of their aprons and waltzing about like she was always meant to be there.
She smiled across at Addie. Then she caught sight of Mateo as he came into the café wearing the gaudiest Hawaiian shirt she’d ever seen.
He winked at her the way he’d done in his younger years once they got past their clash over Susanna.
She didn’t see him for a long time after he and Susanna ended their relationship – she was pretty sure he avoided her on purpose, even when he returned to the island – but then one day a few years after their conversation at the marina, he came into the café.
She’d expected him to confront her, mention what had happened, but instead he’d simply placed an order for an apple and blueberry crumble that he intended to take to his mother’s place that evening.
He’d come in regularly after that and she’d come to like chatting to the man who was refreshingly uncomplicated and polite.
She looked around again. It seemed as though everyone was here.
Should she open the door? It was already rather hot in here.
‘Let me,’ said Nancy, reading her mind. Or perhaps she’d noticed Gayle flapping the frilly collar of her cerise blouse.
Once the door was open, Gayle knew it was time for her to say a few words.
She moved along the counter so she was more in the centre and facing the doorway and the crowds.
She was nervous and had almost talked herself out of doing this, but she was honestly so grateful for all these people in her life that it wouldn’t feel right not to say something to that effect.
She tapped the side of her plate with her spoon, having barely touched the piece of summer pudding that lay on top.
She set the plate down once the room quietened and reached for a glass of water. Her mouth was so dry, probably from the nerves she was feeling, even more so now the gathering was underway. ‘Thank you, everyone, for coming along today,’ she began.
‘She’s alive!’ came a cry from someone in one of the booths, local doctor, Chas, calling through both of his hands.
It might have been funny had she not pulled the wool over her nieces’ eyes to get them here.
Gayle nodded in Chas’s direction and only looked at Susanna and then Addie as she said, ‘My sincerest apologies for scaring everyone with my enormous faux pas on the invites. I’m not sure I’ll ever live it down, but I thank every single person who has come here today.
’ She hesitated. ‘It means a great deal to me.’
This was harder than she thought. But she didn’t want to get upset, she didn’t want this to be a miserable affair where she thought about her regrets, and everyone felt bad for her.
The whole point of the living funeral was to celebrate, to feel joy, to smile, with everyone she cared about, and by God she was going to do that if it really was the last thing she did.
Louisa was smiling over at her, which was nice. She only hoped that Addie and Susanna would give her a chance when they knew everything. She was digging herself a rather big hole by keeping it quiet for so long.
‘I’ve lived on Anchor Island for almost fifty years,’ she continued.
‘When I first came here, I never expected it to become the community and the world that I’ve found myself in.
Launching this business was scary, a leap into the unknown.
I had no idea whether it would work or not, and I sometimes questioned whether I’d made the right choice.
But, having been here, having established the Sweet Life Café as a part of the island, as much as the harbour and the fish and chip shop, the book shop, the bakery and the lovely inn, I am so pleased I didn’t give up, even when things got tough.
‘The Sweet Life Café, like any other business, has endured its tough times especially in the early days and then again when the world changed in 2020.’ She’d read this speech so many times she didn’t really need the notes in her hand, a hand that was shaking somewhat with all eyes on her.
‘It’s thanks to all of you, the local community, that I was able to keep on going.
Instead of gathering here, there was home ordering and the reason I bought that lovely pink van outside.
’ There were a few chuckles amongst her guests.
‘None of you could stop by for a chat like we’re doing now, but I had many a good conversation with a passerby on the street as I stood on the balcony upstairs, just trying to be a part of the world when I was on my own. ’
She couldn’t look at her nieces now. She didn’t want to make them feel guilty – she was doing enough of that for the three of them.
What she’d meant by her words was that during the pandemic she didn’t have all the customer interaction she was used to, and she’d felt it so badly on some days she’d wanted to curl up in a ball and cry or scream.
She hadn’t realised she’d stumbled until she felt Nancy’s hand on her shoulder and the chair suddenly behind her.
‘You okay?’ Nancy whispered in her ear.
‘All this standing up,’ said Gayle with a laugh for her guests’ benefit. ‘And at my age…’ Best to make a joke out of it – that would stop anyone thinking the worst, even if the worst might well be closer than she would like.
She took another sip of water before she smiled and said, ‘I have so many of you to thank, and I hope by letting you gorge yourselves with all the pudding you can eat – for free! – you realise how much you all mean to me.’
There were cries of approval and agreement and the clattering of spoons against bowls or glass vessels like a chant or round of applause.
She scanned the crowds for one of her favourite people. ‘I’d like to say a few special thank yous. Now, where is Moses?’
‘Here,’ came a low baritone of a voice, and she saw a hand go up from the chairs adjacent to the door. Moses was a slight man and dwarfed by some of the teenagers who could almost eat her out of pudding on some days.
‘Moses. A big thank you to you. You are one of my most dedicated supporters. How you stay so trim is beyond me.’
‘It’s the sea air,’ he called over from behind a cupped hand.
‘Well, I say a big thank you from the bottom of my heart. For anyone who doesn’t already know, Moses has been coming here since the day I opened, the day I had fewer than a dozen customers across six hours and wondered what on earth I’d done. Moses spread the word—’
‘True that!’ he hollered.
‘Moses let everyone know about the Sweet Life Café and I think he’s been here every single Sunday, mostly to feed me information from across the Channel, letting me know what his niece in France has in the way of gossip on sweet treats – she works in one of the finest patisseries.’
She looked at Nancy, who was hovering nearby. She reached her hand out until her employee and good friend took it.
‘Nancy here came to me for a job when she’d raised her family and wanted to get back into the workplace.
She told me straight that she would do anything to help – scrub floors, wash up, run errands, man the till.
We’re similar in age and I had a feeling then that we were going to get on, but I had one test she needed to pass.
I gave her a pudding and the fact she cleared her bowl meant she passed with flying colours. ’
‘Luckily it didn’t contain walnuts,’ Nancy interrupted. ‘Can’t stand them. Mind you, I probably would’ve eaten them anyway just to get the job.’
Gayle kept looking at her employee, her friend. ‘Ever since that day you have been reliable. You’ve grown your talents, you’ve been fun to be around and you’ve been a constant companion.’ The room spun a little even though she was in a chair, and she took another sip of water.
Nancy wrapped her arms around Gayle and for a moment Gayle thought she might cry. But she had one more thank you to give.
She looked at Susanna and Addie this time, standing next to each other, together in the way they’d always been.
‘I want to thank my two beautiful nieces, Susanna and Addie.’ They both seemed so nervous, or maybe it was her who felt that way, and Susanna had been quiet ever since last night.
‘Thank you for coming back to the island, thank you for staying.’ She took a deep breath.
‘Life can be a real shit sometimes.’ She paused to let the giggles from the younger mob pass, the younger mob who never expected her vocabulary to contain anything but polite words.
‘Things don’t always go to plan. There are unimaginable losses but seeing you here now and the fine women you have become is a real blessing. ’
She cleared her throat, emotions doing their best to trip her up.
‘It feels a little smug to say that this gathering is a celebration of me, of my life, but that’s what it is.
I wanted to get everyone together, everyone I love and admire and cherish, at the Sweet Life Café.
I decided at my age I’d rather do that now while I could be a part of it.
And to have you both here, Addie and Susanna… well, it means everything.’
She was about to announce that everyone could continue with their pudding, choose another and another, until they were full to bursting, except Addie stepped forwards.
‘I’d like to say a few words,’ she said to Gayle. ‘If that’s all right.’
Gayle felt Nancy’s hand on her arm as she nodded, totally taken by surprise.
Addie stood to address the crowd, and although she was so suited to baking and a place like this, Gayle could well imagine her in an office. Even if she didn’t like her job and it wasn’t what she’d dreamed of doing, she wouldn’t mind betting Addie still did well and tried her very best.
‘I thought I’d say a few words on behalf of me and my sister, Susanna.
’ She briefly looked across to Susanna who smiled back although she still wouldn’t look at Gayle.
Maybe she was choked with emotion and too afraid she’d let herself go in front of all these people.
After all, they’d had a wonderful catch up yesterday as the girls told her all about the holiday.
The night before the girls left, they’d all had dinner together and it had been so… normal.
‘Susanna and I came here as young girls,’ said Addie.
‘Gayle opened up her home to us when life had been rather unfair. Neither of us ever forgot our time here and we never forgot the puddings or this place, which we were delighted to see hasn’t changed much.
’ There were murmurs of agreement from the crowd and as Gayle adjusted to hearing her niece say such kind words it felt as though this was the moment she’d been waiting for, when her past met her present and there was a calming of the storm that had once tried to obliterate her family ties.
‘We’ve both been gone for a while,’ Addie continued, ‘but since we’ve been back on the island, we’ve come to learn how much a part of the community Aunt Gayle really is.
We remember some of you from years ago. We have fond memories of cycling around the island, which, after living in a city, was something entirely new for us.
Being back here has been quite a journey but thank you to everyone for making us feel welcome.
And we’re thankful from the bottom of our hearts that there are so many people who care for our aunt in the way she deserves. ’
Addie finished her speech with a smile and came to give Aunt Gayle a hug, as Gayle insisted everyone continue to enjoy themselves and eat as much pudding as they liked.
She could barely hold back her tears after Addie’s speech.
The three of them had come a long way in such a short time.
They still had a way to go, but maybe they could really make it and be the family they should’ve been all along.