The Legacy
Troy Veenstra
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. All fictional characters are of 19 years of age or older and consenting adults.
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Smashwords Edition © 2012 Troy Veenstra in association with Veenstra Publications All Printed and Electronic Rights Reserved.
It was the ending of a 76-year legacy as she rested peacefully on her bed at the local nursing home, the back of her head pressing gently against the spotless white sheet of the pillowcase. She could feel the soft firmness of the pillows on the back of her head, assisting her as she gazed affectionately at her loving daughters, their somber tears cascading down the outer edge of their eyes.
Sighing ever so softly, Mildred could feel the love and utter sorrow echoing from deep within their eyes. Rolling her head from atop the pillow, she looked upon her five loving daughters, hovering over her like guardian angels as her kind and caring grandchildren wept by their side, clinging to the hands and shoulders of their mothers, trying, as all kids do, to be strong for the ones that were usually strong for them.
It was at this time as her eyes slowly rolled around the room that she realized how loved she really was; for even though there had been fights between the families throughout the year, it was now, when they needed each other the most that they were there as a family. “I’m proud of you all,” she thought to herself, seeing how they were able to come together to say their goodbye’s to her. Adult enough to put their petty squabbles aside and unite once more as a family raised on love. For as Mildred saw the tears of sorrow glistening from the eyes of her daughters, her grandchildren, she herself wept, for she knew then that she was truly loved by them all.
Mildred wept for everyone that cried for her, for she loved them with everything she was and did not want to leave them in their darkest times. She wanted to be there for them still, like a parent that loves their children unconditionally, she wanted to be there for them now more than ever. She wanted to hold them firmly in her arms, to kiss their wounds and hold them ever so tightly with the bonds of her love. To be there to watch their kids become parents. To see her grandchildren grow and become adults and yet she knew this would never be.
It was then that she remembered it, rushing her mind like a horrid dream; the last remaining breath of a distant memory; the breath before life leads to death; she remembered the passing of her loving husband who had passed from this world less than a year ago, only a few days after the celebrated birth of their savior. Mildred remembered that day so intensely, as if it had happened only hours ago, yet it started no greater than the countless days before.
There was no warning that the day would end so ominous and heartbreaking, no warning or premonition that; that day, would be different from any other before and no notice that her husband had only hours of breath left upon the world. No warning that soon she would be in utter chaos and sadness over the man she loved for almost all her life. No warnings that come that night she would be more alone than she ever felt in all her days upon this world.
That morning she awoke to the warmth of glistening rays on her face as the sun emerged through the uncovered cracks in the draping from the Bay window of her living room. Mildred had been sleeping in an automated bed for nearly two years due to her deteriorating health.
Gazing around the room, she remembered seeing her husband emerge from their bedroom across the way. Walking as he usually did, with a limp, as he dragged his left leg across the carpet, making sure not to fall as he put his weight on to his cane, the years of heart attacks and strokes showing the visible wear on his body.
Yet though his body was worse for wear, his mind was still as sharp as the first time her eyes gazed upon his lightly tanned face. Walking up to the living room widow he opened the drapes to reveal the beautiful morning light, spreading its bright rays across the newly fresh snow that had fallen from the night before.
Looking at her he smiled as she smiled back, almost blushing as a pink hue crossed her face when her eyes met his. Winking at her, he took a deep breath as he slowly walked across the living room, trying as best he could to keep his eyes locked onto hers as he limped to his erect lift chair. Approaching it just off to the side of her, he adjusted his position, allowing himself to fall back against the cushions as he turned his face towards her and said, in the most charming deep voice her ears had been blessed to hear, "Good morning mother." Hearing the warmth in his voice as she whispered back, “and Good Morning daddy, it’s such a beautiful day outside, I can feel the warmth on my skin,” she whispered as she fell back against the bed, resting back across the soft pillow top mattress. “Not as beautiful as you my sweet,” he gasped ever so gently. Feeling at ease with the moment of the day once again, she felt the warmth of the sun as its rays of light slowly threw her back to sleep, only to awake hours later to a scene of horrors.
“Thump, thump, thump.” Mildred heard as she slowly opened her eyes, only to notice that the sun was no longer out; that the warm day had been replaced by the cold winter night. “Thump, thump, thump,” she heard the loud sound again, this time forcing her to sit up from the bed and look towards her beloved husband, which caused her to freeze in terror. Mildred could see the small beads of sweat falling from his face; his skin pale and saturated. His breathing erratic as sweat rained down across the sides of his face and upper lip.
She knew as she looked upon him that he was having a heart attack and knew that he was trying to get Troy (their Grandson that lived with them) up from the downstairs basement. She began to yell for Troy as well, as her husband slowly walked the best he could, without his cane, from the living room to the kitchen. All the while thumping with his good leg each time he took a step forward.
Holding his good arm over his chest, he made his way to the kitchen, finally seeing his grandson turning the corner that lead down basement as there eyes locked onto each other, he took a deep breath, feeling the intensity of the pain coercing through his body as he tried to speak. "I . . . , I want to be . . . I want to be cremated . . . Please son,” He said, managing to get the painful words out.
“Not today Grandpa,” Troy sighed, taking his grandfather the arm, walking him as quickly as he could back to his chair. Once his Grandfather was in the chair, Troy gave him a Nitro pill and then called both the emergency services as well as his mother and informed them of what was going on.
Within moments after making the call, Linda, their second daughter, came through the door with bags of food in each arm. "Help Daddy" Mildred yelled as Linda dropped the bags and ran to her father who by now was fully reclining in his lift chair. Troy suddenly came out from the kitchen, Glad to see Linda in the living room, standing over her father trying to help him in whatever way she could.
"I already called 911" he said to Linda distressed, "They should be here soon, Mom’s been informed as well so she should be contacting everyone else.” he gasped, trying to reassure his aunt that he had done everything that he could think of to help.
Yet to everyone in the house it seemed as if time stood still, every second, every breath in eternity in itself, frozen in time. The feeling of helplessness consumed Mildred’s soul as she sat on her bed, watching the life from her husband, the father, the grandpa, slowly passing into shadow. Until finally, “they” arrived and all she could do was watch like a poor child as the emergency team quickly carried her betrothed away to the hospital. All the while, the only thing her husband kept on saying was "I want to be cremated . . . I don’t want you to pay a lot for my death . . . I am on borrowed time . . . I love you all!”
As Linda went along with them, Troy stayed with her and held her hand as he tried telling her that everything was going to be okay, "that Grandpa had survived more than any other man his age and that this was no exception." However, even as he stood there she knew even better than he did, that he was lying.
This time was not like the times in the past, this time was different and she knew just as her husband knew that, there would be no more sunshine in this world for him to see. Closing her eyes, she thought of better times, remember the day of her marriage, the friends and family that threatened to flip their car if they didn’t buy the booze after the wedding, smiling she slowly fell back against the cushions of the bed. Resting her head on top of the pillows once more as tears rained from the sides of her eyes.
Hours later, she awoke to find four of her five daughters hovering around her as they began to hold her hands and slowly rub her shoulders, Mildred knew what they had to tell her, yet even though she knew, she still needed to hear it. To allow the news to register it in her mind, to know that this was not a dream, a sadness, a virus of her mind. She needed to know, to hear what she already knew to be.
Sadly, she heard what she feared to hear. What every wife fears to hear about their lover, their husband, their best friend. She heard that her husband, the man that gave her five wonderful daughters, the man that spent over 50 years of his life by her side, had passed on; into the hands of his maker and that, she was forever alone in this world.
After an hour or so of talking with her daughters, holding hands and giving hugs and prayer, her daughters slowly left her alone, leaving her alone with her Grandson but more so with her thoughts and memories. Mildred knew that her daughters cared for her and their father, but at the same time, she too was a mother and knew that her daughters needed to be mothered and cared for by their own family that night.
That they were also wives and so too needed to lie next to their husbands and hold them tightly in their arms, feeling the warm of their lover’s body against their own. Reflecting upon the loss of their father, with the one closest to them upon this earth, for Mildred knew that they had also lost a cherished loved one and needed time to remorse. Time to reflect, time to be loved by the one they held most dear and trusted beyond all hope and reason.
As the last of her daughters left, Troy locked the front door and grabbed her brown blanket from the couch, covering her with it as he told her that he loved her. He asked her if she needed anything before she went to bed. Looking around the room and to the chair that "Daddy" had sat in just hours ago, she sighed softly to herself, only to gaze back at her cup that sat on the table next to her asked him to fill it for her.
Grabbing the cup, he told her that he would be right back as he left her in the darkness of the room. Looking around the room once again, she slowly closed her eyes, and quietly, as if only to herself said, "Daddy."
"Time for bed Mother." she heard his soft caressing voice in the darkness, as she quickly opened her eyes to see him standing in front of her. There he stood in the shadows, his cane and all as he took his good hand and quickly acted as if he was going to slap her across the face only to stop halfway. Just as he always had since the time they had their third daughter and softly put his hand on the right side of her check, gently brush his lips ever so tenderly over hers, kissing her passionately.
Slowly breaking from the kiss, he walked behind her and just as always, he scratched her back with the tips of his fingers until one would think her skin was rubbed raw. He then stopped and began to walk away only to look back at her, to stare deeply into her eyes, as if looking upon an angelic beauty, "Goodnight Mother, my sweet angle . . . I love you." he whispered in the most deepening voice as his image faded softly into the darkness of the room.
Tears rolled from the corner of Mildred’s eyes as she removed her glasses to wipe away the tears, whispered to herself so only she could hear, "I love you too, Daddy."
“Is there anything else you need grandma?” Troy asked as he walked back into the room, gazing into her glistening tear-filled eyes. "No my son…" was her only reply as she slowly fell back down on her pillow and looked up at the ceiling and said, almost in a happy voice, "Goodnight… Troy."
"Goodnight Grandma,” he said as he sat down on the couch and began to read a magazine, watching over his grandmother as she closed her eyes, feeling the utter warmth of her loving husband upon her once more.
When she opened her eyes again, Mildred was back at the nursing home, staring into the same caring faces that cared so deeply for her. Yet this time, unlike before, as her eyes rolled around the room she saw not only her loving daughters and her grandchildren but this time she saw a man standing at the foot of her bed.
This man was her husband, Clarence. As their eyes met, she saw him in his full glory. No longer did he have a cane to hold up his worn down body for it was no longer worn down. For in her eyes he looked just as he did the day she first met him all those many years ago. The way he looked when she gazed passionately into his eyes and spoke to the two words that marked her legacy, the words “I do.”
As he walked closer to her, he gently graced his fingers of her hand, the voices of her loving daughters fading to silence, as all she could hear was his voice.
"Mother, its time, my love, It’s time to go, he is calling for you."
“Daddy,” she said softly, “I’m Scared . . . Please… I don’t want to leave them alone…” she paused looking ever so deeply into his loving eyes, “Please . . . I’m . . . I’m Scared.” She gasped.
Clasping his hands into hers, he softly kissed the top of her forehead.
“There is no reason to be scared… we taught them well my love.” He hushed, gently rolling his hands over her face.
“My love . . . He is waiting for you . . . He is proud of you, of our daughters and our Grandchildren . . . He loves you as I love you my darling.” He said, staring deeply into her eyes.
“Alright” Mildred gasped as she took a deep breath.
“Daddy . . . I love you,” she said as she closed her eyes for the last time. Looking to her daughters and her grandchildren, she whispered to them as she felt her body becoming healed, “we will always be with you,” she breathed.
“We will always love you.”