Luke says that this gift was obviously a collaboration between Maisey and Marcus. And I know he’s right.
“Let’s go to bed, babe,” he says.
“I don’t want this day to end.”
Of course I know it must, so I take myself into our bathroom and begin the routine—from the sublime to the mundane. Except tonight, as I exchange my dress for a gown, wash my face, brush my teeth, and take my vitamin and calcium pills, daisies keep me company.
“Done,” I say, returning to the bedroom, “but I hate to turn out the light.”
“The house will still be full of daisies tomorrow,” Luke says.
“That’s true.”
I sit on the edge of the bed and read my card one more time before I place it against the vase on my bedside table, turn out the light, and nestle close to my husband, throwing my arm across him as I did Maisey last night.
I know he’s practically asleep, but he turns to kiss me, an absolute necessity on such a momentous night. “Good night, Kendy.”
“Good night, honey.”
A very good night!
My smile lingers even in the dark, and I thank God that Maisey’s wedding was as wonderful as we hoped it would be when she was a child.
I’ll probably read Maisey’s note again tomorrow before I put it, along with Mother’s note, into my memory box for safekeeping. But when I read it in the future, it’ll only be for the pure joy of seeing her familiar handwriting, for what she has said will be forever engraved on my heart:
Mom~
The bedbugs want you to have these daisies. (The bedbugs are talking again, making up for lost time.) They say to share these flowers with Dad. They say your daughter loves you both very much. They say it is you, Mom, who is more darling than a daisy. Though daisies are lovely, aren’t they?
~Maisey
NOVELS BY JACKINA STARK
Tender Grace
Things Worth Remembering
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JACKINA (pronounced with a long “i” to rhyme with China) Stark recently retired from teaching English at Ozark Christian College to spend more time writing and traveling. During the twenty-eight years she taught at OCC, she traveled nationally and internationally to speak and teach, and wrote many articles for denominational magazines. She has been married to her husband, Tony, for forty-two years. They live in Carl Junction, Missouri, and have two daughters and six grandchildren.
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An Open Book: A Book Club Resources Exchange
Things Worth Remembering Page 24
