“Sweet Jesus!” Sally groaned. “Dusty must’ve died, and she’s buried that big old mule. That’s why she wasn’t in church this morning. He died, and that’s his grave. See that little cross propped up with rocks? It’s got his name on it.” Sally was out of her van and running toward the cabin before Lily even got her seat belt undone.

“Keep everyone outside until—” she yelled as she cleared the porch and knocked on the door several times. When there was no answer, she tried the knob, and the door swung open.

Holly slid out of the front seat of Mack’s truck and was on the porch when Sally came out and closed the door behind her. Lily stopped in her tracks and knew what had happened before Sally said a word. Granny Hayes was dead, and Holly was going to be devastated.

“We can’t go in there, not until the doctor comes.” Sally’s voice cracked, and tears dripped onto the collar of her coat.

“Is Granny Hayes sick? Is she going to be all right?” Holly asked.

Mack pulled a clean white handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Sally. “I’ll call Doc Greene. He usually goes to the Comfort Café for lunch on Sunday, so maybe I’ll catch him there.”

“She’s gone, and probably has been for days, maybe since the night after she got old Dusty buried.” Sally dabbed at her eyes.

“No, Mama! She can’t be dead. She’s my friend, and she can’t . . .” Holly threw herself into Lily’s arms and wet the front of her mother’s sweater with tears.

Sally passed the hankie over to Lily, and she wiped Holly’s cheeks with it as she held her and let her cry as long as she wanted. Braden got out of the truck and walked out to the mound of dirt, with Mack right behind him. Lily watched from the corner of her eye as Mack made the phone call and then draped his arm around Braden’s shaking shoulders.

“She left a sealed letter with me last month, and then in church last week she handed me another one,” Sally said between sobs. “I wasn’t to open them until she was gone. She said they had all her wishes in them. I laughed after she’d walked away because I thought she’d live to be a hundred for sure. She was always secretive about everything, but the one thing she told me was that we weren’t to take her off her property. No embalming and no big funeral at the church. The rest I’ll have to read when I get back to the shop. The letters are in the safe.”

Holly plopped down on the top porch step. “We would have helped her bury that old mule. All she had to do was call us.”