Carly is Coping with the loss

Waking up that morning of the funeral left Carly drained. She already had to battle with Mrs. Cooper, her child's grandmother, that night over her finding out that Pace changed the beneficiary on his life insurance without telling anyone he even had a policy at work. She said we had bought our own life insurance together after living as a little family for some time. So she had no idea about an at-work policy. She felt like a zombie being led around by the church funeral director as they made the lines to walk into the church.

Carly must have looked so heartbroken that people who had never laid eyes on her knew she was the one who looked like she had lost everything because what could only be a relative to Pace, a woman came to her with an envelope and put it in her hands and said something like she was his Aunt and wanted to give this to little Patrick and her. She said she was sorry for our loss. All Carly could do was say thank you. Her so-called mother-in-law quickly grabbed the envelope from her hand when the woman walked away. Sitting there, taking one last look at him in the coffin, was just too much for her; he made her promise she would never do the funeral thing and that they would be cremated and done with it.

Pace had been a child in the church, and he felt they were nothing more than financial and emotional sponges in our black communities to replace the lovelessness in some black women's lives; at least, that's what it was for his family Since you had no man at home to love you, "Here's Jesus" to love and protect you, and although you are poor, please keep giving till it hurts. His Mother had been more than willing to sacrifice her child's well-being, and he remembered being left homesick as she went to bingo or other church functions. She had a significant plaque on the wall with many others to immortalize her loyalty to this place.

Yet Carly was in that pew with their child, saying their last goodbyes to the Man she loved. The man she'd planned to grow old with and have a big family with. Those dreams were never to come to fruition. Ironically she remembered being in a fortune teller's shop. The woman told her that she would never find happiness and that she had a curse on her passed down from a scorned woman who put it on the Mother from sleeping with her husband, so they had their own personal little generational curse. Carly didn't have the best relationship with her Mother growing up, but she was all she had, so she just appreciated her Mom working to take care of her, but she always felt something weird from her Mom. It was called resentment, and she sensed it whenever she asked about her father. So she learned to stop questioning. Carly just knew one thing she didn't want to be with someone else's husband. She knew she didn't want to be in a loveless marriage like the one she saw rampant in her family.

When Pace came along, she was shocked she gave him or any guy the time of day. She thought she might join the Peace Corps and build wells in Africa. That all changed for her because they had become such great friends that they were attracted to each other, so they let nature take its course. So seven years of what oddly seemed too perfect, and they had Patrick, and love was great. Pace had fallen sick. He started coughing up blood, which scared them, so even though he went to the doctors, they gave him the wrong results. It was his stomach, his lungs when all along; it was his heart. The doctors said it was an issue that his left side shut down due to never getting the antibiotics when he was young and sick with the flu. Those results came after the autopsy.

So after the funeral was over, Carly knew she had to leave the church as soon as possible and get home to their home, where her Mom and Aunt were there preparing the repass, but not before the funeral director needed her to sign a few papers for payment. While between the signing, the director Mr. Buckley told her about how the church put together some refreshments afterward in the basement cafeteria. Carly told her Mother in law about the work her family was doing after the funeral, the cooking and preparing for the Cooper family, yet she realized she had told no one. So leaving out, she said her goodbyes and mentioned the address to the repass, but they were told differently. So Carly took her 3-year-old by the hand and got out of there fast.

When Carly and Patrick got home, it was like heaven. The house was spotless, with none of Patrick's trucks or teddy bears anywhere in sight, and the aromas from the kitchen were unbelievable. The counters and dining table were covered with trays of delicious-looking food. Her Aunt had even made those cute cut hours- oeuvres sandwiches, not just finger foods, littered the tablescape, but whole spiral ham and baked mac and cheese. Loads of salads and desserts, cakes and pies, and fancy puddings. Let's put it this way Carly's family could burn in the kitchen. They were well known to be catering professionals in the repass department. However, these were, for lack of a better term, unique acts reserved for family and friends' funerals only. After coming in, Mom greeted her by taking off her jacket and telling Carly to sit and relax. You only have to be sitting to be able to accept visitors/ mourners. Patrick could eat on a plate and then head to his room for comfort.

Carly's home was open and waiting to be filled with family and friends. There was a knock at the doorway still. Carly got up to see why someone would knock on the door when it was already open, but when she got to the entrance, she saw this pretty woman with a gorgeous little girl beside her. The little girl looked so familiar. She looked like her little Patrick, but she was a lot older. The woman looked at Carlya and asked if this was Pace Cooper's repass, and Carly said yes. Then she wondered if she could speak to his wife. Carly said are you a relative of Paces and the woman said no, this is his daughter that he never knew existed. Carly stood there frozen by this news...