May God be with you and bless you
May you see your children’s children.
May you be poor in misfortunes
And rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.
Erin relayed the details of her trip to Sharlene the next day after returning to Southern California. She felt the same emotional ache pressing against her chest that she had experienced after Delores’s announcement at the grocery store in front of all those salad dressing bottles. Delores had made it clear that she wasn’t willing to remain committed to Erin’s father “in sickness and in health.” The revelation was a brutal one since Erin was almost ready to accept Delores and appreciate her for all the ways Erin’s father had chosen to set his affections on her.
“What did you say when Delores said she would leave him?” Sharlene was standing in their office’s corner with her arms folded, expressing the same sense of anger that Erin was fighting.
“I didn’t say anything. To be honest, I was in shock. I thought she was going to say she loved him too much to bear the thought of anything happening to him. That’s what I was thinking at that moment.”
“Of course that’s what you were thinking. That’s what anyone who loves another person should be thinking at a time like that. I want to scratch out that woman’s eyes. What did you say to your father? Did you at least leave him with some sort of hint that the woman he had married was self-serving?”
“No. I couldn’t say anything. I really couldn’t. The whole time was so awkward. I left their place at one o’clock and barely made it to my seven o’clock flight home. Mike said he doesn’t think I should go up there again unless he’s with me. He doesn’t want them using me as the Ping-Pong ball in their odd match.”
“This is pretty awful, if you ask me.”
“I know. But it could be much worse. At least his health seems stable, according to my short conversation with the doctor.” Erin rubbed the back of her neck. “I plan to call my dad each week, and then Mike and I will go up in May.”
“Okay.” Sharlene unfolded her arms and headed for the computer. “That’s that, then. You’re back, and we have work to do. Let me show you where we are with the agreements for the church venues on our list.”
Erin and Sharlene dove back in with a shared enthusiasm for their venture. In many ways, it seemed as if Erin had never been gone. She thought about her dad more often as the weeks rolled by. She prayed for him more than she had before his stroke. And true to her plan, she called almost every week.
Their conversations were short and focused mostly on questions her dad asked about his grandsons. He appeared to be in good health. Several times he thanked her for “checking in.” Occasionally Delores would be the one to answer the phone. She would give updates on how Jack had built new shelves in the garage or painted the front deck. Everything seemed to be back to normal.
Business picked up for Erin and Sharlene with a gust of energy toward the end of April, and by the time May arrived, they were experiencing almost more success than they could handle. They hadn’t anticipated so many Christmas weddings. Erin’s favorite triumph was the agreement they secured with Patio Galaxy for the rental of outdoor luxury furniture groupings.
Since Erin felt no urgency to make another visit in May to Oregon, she and Mike talked about taking a two-week vacation in the fall. They planned to fly to Portland, rent a car, and then, after visiting her dad and Delores, they would drive down the Oregon and California coasts.
August zoomed by, and they were a full week into September before Mike and Erin talked again about their plans for a leisurely fall vacation.
“To be honest,” Mike said, “unless you see things differently, I would rather put the money into getting all the boys home for Thanksgiving. Especially since Jordan is bringing Sierra with him.”
“Then let’s do that,” Erin said. She paused a moment and said, “I could invite my dad and Delores to come for Thanksgiving.”
Mike wasn’t quick to reply.
“Do you think that would be good or not?”
“I’m not opposed to your dad and Delores coming. It’s just that this is the first time we’ll all be together in a long time. With Jordan bringing Sierra, I want to make sure you feel like you have time to focus on them and not get hung up on any bickering between your dad and Delores. Why don’t you think about it some more?”
The first week of November Erin brought up the topic again with Mike. She had been thinking about inviting her dad and Delores and she had also been thinking about inviting her brother, Tony, and his wife and daughters.
Mike’s expression said it all. “Erin, honey, why would you do that to yourself?”
“I thought that maybe, just maybe, if my dad and Tony were together again, they might mend their torn relationship. It’s what my mom hoped and prayed for every day.”
“That’s what you should do, too, Erin. Pray. Hope. Those are two things you can do every day. There’s nothing wrong in wishing for the two of them to be reconnected, but do you really think you can facilitate that sort of restoration over Thanksgiving dinner?”
Erin didn’t reply. They were sitting at the kitchen counter having their conversation, and she knew they had only five more minutes to discuss this before Mike had to leave and Sharlene would show up for their usual workday.
“Where are you going to put all these people, by the way?” Mike asked.
“We have air mattresses.”
Mike gave her another look that expressed he thought she was nuts.
Erin stood and loaded the dishwasher, making more noise with the rattling of the dishes than was necessary. “Okay. Fine. For Jordan and Sierra’s sake I won’t invite Tony and his family. I’m sure it’s a long shot that they could afford the airfare anyhow. I just wanted them to feel wanted and included and . . . I don’t know . . . welcome in the family regardless of the past.”
“Then why don’t you invite your dad, Delores, Tony, and his family to all come for Christmas? The boys, too, of course. Jordan can bring Sierra. Joel and Grant can bring some friends home, too. Ask everyone to stay through New Year’s.”
Erin turned to look at her husband, stunned at his sudden gush of hospitality.
Mike put up both hands. “Kidding! I was only kidding, Erin! Don’t even think of filling the house with a warring clan of the fighting Irish for Christmas.”
She flicked her fingers at him, sprinkling him with water from her wet hands.
He seemed to enjoy the teasing that had been so much a part of their early years of marriage. “I have to go. Too bad. Staying and having a water fight with you would be so much more fun.”
“I can arrange to schedule a match later tonight.”
“Promise?”
She walked him to his car in the driveway and gave him a kiss by his car door. Mike gave her two kisses in return along with his usual pat on the backside. “Remember, water fight tonight. You promised.”
Erin grinned. She had a wonderful husband, and she knew it.
Sharlene pulled up as Mike was driving away and Erin was smiling at him and blowing kisses.
“Aren’t you the blushing lovebug this morning? Did I show up for work too soon? We can work out a signal system, you know. You can tie a ribbon on the front door if you want me to go away and come back later. I mean, The Happiest Day doesn’t always have to be about our brides.”
Erin laughed. “Today it does. We’ve had four more requests come in on the website since yesterday.”
“I know. I saw them this morning. You know, I’ve been thinking . . .”
“Uh-oh, should I be worried?”
“No, you should be amazed and supportive of my fantastic idea. I’m thinking it will be especially favorable to you on mornings like this one.”
“Does this have anything to do with your idea of moving our headquarters?” In the past four months, boxes of brochures and pamphlets had overflowed Erin’s home office and spilled into the garage as well as half the floor space in the guest room of their three-bedroom home. Sharlene and Erin often had talked about renting a storage shed or looking into renting office space.
“Yes and no, it has something to do with the idea of sharing,” Sharlene said. “Just hear me out.”
The two friends entered the house as Sharlene unfolded her plan. By ten o’clock they had reached a mutual decision. They would run the business out of both Erin’s and Sharlene’s homes. The two of them would meet at Erin’s home office every Monday and Thursday for planning and face-to-face updates, but the rest of the week they would divide the clients, as they had been doing, and would run everything from their separate locations. Sharlene already had cleared space in her garage for half the boxes.
“This will make us more efficient,” Sharlene said as she pulled out her laptop and plugged it into the wall.
“That’s true.” Erin settled in the desk chair in front of her computer and remembered their first morning when they had toasted with their paper latte cups. “I know this is a good solution, but I’m still sad. The only other solution I see is for us to take on fewer clients. But things are going so great and running so smoothly, I would hate to put on the brakes now.”
“Exactly.”
The restructuring of their fledgling business took place right away. When more than half the boxes had been moved to Sharlene’s house, Erin even managed to park her car in the garage.
By the time Thanksgiving arrived, Erin was grateful to have some of her house space back. She also was secretly relieved that she didn’t have a lot of guests coming. Her goal was to make this the happiest, best, most memorable Thanksgiving ever for the five important people who would put their feet under her mother’s dining room table.
The day before Thanksgiving Jordan and Sierra arrived just as it was getting dark. They came in through the garage and entered the kitchen. Erin had an apron on over her jeans and sweater and was pulling two pumpkin pies from the oven. She nearly dropped them when she saw Jordan walk in.
“You’re here! I didn’t think you would arrive until tomorrow.” She quickly put the pies on the stove and wiped her hands on her apron before rushing to wrap her arms around her tall son and kiss him soundly on his scruffy cheek. “Oh, it’s so good to see you, honey!”
The older Jordan got, the more he resembled Mike. His dark hair was longer than Erin had seen it in a long time. His jaw was firmly set, and his clear eyes hinted at deep inner happiness. He stretched his arm back and took Sierra’s hand, drawing her forward. “Mom, this is Sierra.”
Erin grinned wildly at the earthy young woman standing in her kitchen. Sierra’s curly blond hair tumbled over her shoulders. Her no-makeup, no-nonsense expression was refreshing, and her soft blue green eyes were bright with honesty. “Welcome, Sierra. I want you to make yourself at home. Completely at home.”
Erin considered giving Sierra a hug, but she hesitated, not knowing if Sierra was the type of girl who felt comfortable getting hugged on the first meeting.
Sierra quickly answered that question by stepping forward and being the one to give Erin a simple, sweet, spontaneous hug. “I’m so happy to finally meet you.”
Erin loved her immediately.
As the evening continued, Erin’s happiness grew. Mike came home with pizza for all of them. Jordan carried in the luggage, and Sierra offered to help in the kitchen. She chopped onions for Erin’s famous stuffing recipe, washed dishes, and talked about the years she had spent working in Brazil. It was a dream come true for Erin to have another woman to work with side by side in the kitchen. She had waited a long time for the day when one of her boys would bring home a young woman who made his heart happy. Without a doubt, Sierra was that woman for Jordan.
Early on Thursday morning a persistent rain started about the same time that Erin put the obscenely huge bird into her new, bright red roaster and closed the oven door. By noon the rain had lifted, and when they sat down to an opulent meal at four o’clock, the late-afternoon autumn sun was coming through the freshly sprinkled front windows, casting tiny prisms of light on the rims of the crystal goblets.
The scene reminded her of the drive to the Hidden Cottage in February when the sun broke through the fog-shrouded woods and lit up the strings of glimmering ice droplets on the pine tree boughs. That trip seemed so long ago. It now felt like a vivid dream and not something that had really happened.
They joined hands around the table, and Mike led their family in a prayer of gratefulness. Erin whispered another prayer silently, thanking God that her father’s health was good and asking that he and her brother would somehow, someday, be peacefully reunited.
An echo of “amens” sounded around the table.
When Erin looked up, she saw that Jordan and Sierra, who had been holding hands during the prayer, hadn’t let go after the “amen.” Both Jordan and Sierra had their backs to the window, and when Erin looked at them, the sun had backlit their profiles, igniting the glow in their eyes.
That impression was extraordinary in and of itself. But the brief moment that pressed itself into her memory was the look on Jordan’s face as he gazed at Sierra and the way that look was mirrored on Sierra’s face. It wasn’t a giddy glimpse born of infatuation or a heady gaze of passion ignited by human hormones. Jordan and Sierra gave each other the sort of look that remains the same at ninety-five when exchanged between two people who have set their sights on going the distance together as one. It was the look of lifetime love.
Erin choked up. Her son was in love right before her eyes.
Not wanting to give away any clues of what her maternal instinct was telling her, Erin uncovered the mashed potatoes in the china serving bowl that had been her mother’s and passed the steaming spuds to Mike on her right. Ever since she was a child, at every family gathering, this beautiful bowl had served one purpose and one purpose only. This was where the garlic mashed potatoes with sour cream and chives were put and topped with a pat of butter before being covered and placed on the dining table to wait for the prayer of thanks.
Jordan held the bowl for Sierra. “Wait till you try my mom’s mashed potatoes. These are the ones I said were worth the long drive. Seriously, Mom, this is what I came home for—your famous mashed potatoes.”
Sierra looked across the table at Erin. “He really has been talking about your potatoes for two weeks now. If you don’t mind sharing your recipes, I’d like to get this one along with your secret ingredient.”
Erin swallowed a smile and answered with the same reply her mom always gave when anyone complimented her on this same recipe. “You add lots of love and an appalling amount of real butter.”
Sierra’s lips turned up in a compelling smile. That’s when Erin knew she would be passing on more than just this recipe to Sierra. One day, this serving bowl would be hers as well. These mashed potatoes just wouldn’t taste the same in any other bowl.
Erin had a deep longing to excuse herself from the table, go into the back room, and cry. She wanted to pick up the phone and say, “Mom, guess what? Jordan is in love. He’s really in love. Her name is Sierra, and she’s lovely and sweet, and you should be here to meet her.”
Instead she drew in her stomach and let her shoulders roll forward. Then she held her chin up and smiled. She had found this was the best posture to take in moments like this when she missed her mother so much it felt as if a cannonball had blown a hole through the middle of her soul.
When Sierra slipped off to the guest room after dinner, Jordan took the opportunity to sidle up to his mom and put his arm around her. Jordan was the same height as Erin, so the two of them could look at each other eye to eye.
“Well?” It was the only word Jordan said.
Erin replied with a single word of blessing, “Yes.”