Final Wishes

It was the perfect setting for her grandma’s memorial. The cloudy and grey skies seemed to weep as well. Amanda knew her grandma would love the weather. It was her favorite kind. Amanda was like her grandma in that way.

Grandma Kelly had always been there for Amanda. Through her parents divorce, the hard times that fell on her when she lost her job and many other occasions. Grandma Kelly had always been her rock.

Being the only grandchild and the closest person to grandma, Amanda was left the old house that she spent many summers at as a child. The pear tree her grandma and her planted was still in the garden outback. The marks in the door frame that her grandma measured her at every year were still there as well.

The countless guests at the memorial service were continuous. Her grandma meant so much to the small town she lived in and she would be missed a great deal. As heartbreaking as the day was, grandma Kelly was loved and cherished by the community and that brought happy tears to Amanda’s eyes.

The picture of grandma Kelly hanging over the fireplace was taken when she was around the same age as Amanda. She knew all her good looks came from grandma. She had the same grey-blue moon-shaped eyes, high cheekbones, and long strawberry blonde hair with the perfect spirals. Grandma had loved those perfect locks Amanda carried around, which is the biggest reason that she never died her hair. She didn’t want to destroy what her Grandma had handed down to her.

Amanda was so grateful for everything her grandmother had done for her and now her best friend and the person she confided the most intimate details of her life to, was now gone. Now Amanda was all that was left of the family. She had no one to carry on life with.

She needed a breath of fresh air and decided to go sit in the garden next to the pear tree which had the perfect covering from the storm. It was perfect book reading weather, but she wasn’t going to leave her guests to read a book, even if that was all she wanted to do right now.

“Are you Amanda?” A males voice startled her from her thoughts.

Amanda looked up to see a man around her age towering above her.

Standing up, she dusted her long black skirt off and held a hand out “Yes, that’s me. And you are?”

“I am Jeremy. Your grandma told me so much about you. I think she was trying to set us up.” He chuckled with a twinkle in his green eyes.

Amanda knew exactly who he was. Grandma had been talking about him for years and for whatever reason they had never actually met up. She could see why her grandma was so adamant about the two of them meeting.

“Ah Jeremy. Yes, that was grandma for you. She didn’t want me to be alone, although I am quite happy with my life” She smiled and started to walk away as he gently put his hand on her shoulder to get her to stay.

“Listen, I know how weird this is, being Kelly’s memorial service, but I promised her I would talk to you.” Jeremy sat down on the bench next to the pear tree and motioned for Amanda to join him. “ I was there the night Kelly passed. She was waiting for you to show up and held on as long as she could. In her dying last breath, she made me promise to take you out after things have settled down a bit.”

Looking into his eyes, she wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth or not. “So my grandma’s dying wish was for me to go out on a date with you? That sounds absurd.”

Jeremy ran his fingers through his dark brown hair and laughed. “ I know how it sounds, believe me. She handed me this though right beforehand.”

Amanda opened up a folded up piece of paper Jeremy had pulled from his pocket.

Amanda and Jeremy,

You two have meant so much to me. Amanda, I have loved you since your mom found out about you before you were born. Jeremy, ever since you moved here, you have shown me what an amazing gentleman you are. It is my wish and always has been for you two to meet. I will be passing soon, I feel it in my bones. Please, give it a chance. Make an old womans dying wish come true.

Grandma Kelly

Amanda and Jeremy would laugh years later about how they met. Grandma had always had something up her sleeves. They might have questioned it in the beginning, but even fifty years later as their grandchildren played in the back yard, where that pear tree used to be, the memory of that day lived on forever. Grandma helped build a legacy and she did it from beyond the grave.