Holly didn’t waste a second. She jumped to her feet, crossed the porch, and opened the door. Lily didn’t know how her daughter would react to seeing a dead person or what condition Granny Hayes might be in, so she rushed inside right behind Holly. To Lily’s surprise, Holly pulled a rocking chair up to the bed and sat down.

Granny Hayes looked smaller than usual in her flannel nightgown buttoned up to her wrinkled and thin neck. She was lying on her back with the covers pulled up to her chest. Her arms were stretched out beside her body on top of the piecework quilt, and her braids lay down across her breasts and to her waist.

“Are you sure she’s not just asleep?” Holly whispered.

“Positive. The doctor has pronounced her dead.” Lily brought a ladder-back chair across the floor and sat down beside Holly.

Mack and Braden came into the one-room cabin. Mack crossed the room and stood behind Holly and Lily. Braden sat down on the floor and gathered the mama cat and all three kittens into his lap. “I ain’t never seen a dead person except Granny Vera, and she was in a casket. Granny Hayes don’t look dead. She looks like she’s asleep.”

“Are you ladies all right? Can I get you anything?”

Lily reached over her shoulder for his hand, and he laced his fingers in hers. “Not a thing. We’ll just sit here with her until Sally gets back and tells us what to do.” The touch of his hand brought comfort to the strange but peaceful turn of events that morning. It seemed like time stood still until Sally came through the door with two envelopes in her hand. She dragged a second chair over to the other side of the bed and opened the first one, scanned through it, broke the wax seal on the second one, and read out loud.

My Dear Sally,

If you are reading this, I’m gone on to whatever eternity God has planned for me. Don’t weep for me, but be happy that I’ve had a long life and a happy one for the past near forty years. I’ve lived exactly the way I wanted, and God blessed me with a dear friend like you, and now a little friend in Holly Anderson. I’ve gone back into all the births and deaths recorded in my grandmother Mayer’s Bible and found that she and I are very distant cousins. That’s the only thing that I like about having Mayer blood in me.