Chapter 15 - Arthur Has One Final Request
Caleb came home from the hospital stronger every week.
Arthur became weaker.
One evening, Caleb sat beside him and showed him a drawing.
Three stick figures.
Me.
Caleb.
Arthur.
Above Arthur, Caleb had written:
GRANDPA A.
Arthur cried.
Later, he asked me for one final favor.
“Don’t let Caleb grow up believing I was a hero.”
I frowned.
“You paid for his surgery.”
“That was one good thing.”
He pointed toward Rose’s photograph.
“I also failed his grandmother.”
Arthur wanted Caleb to know people could do both.
Fail terribly.
Then choose differently.
He died eleven days later.
Quietly.
Florence held one hand.
I held the other.
Richard and Victoria stood nearby.
Caleb was asleep upstairs.
Arthur’s final words to me were not about money.
May you like
“Make sure the trust keeps listening to mothers.”
Then he was gone.
