by June Tate
Velda wiped her eyes and blew her nose. ‘You’re right! I’ve been wallowing in self-pity far too long.’ She gave a wistful smile. ‘Thank you Gracie, somehow you’ve managed to unlock all my emotions in one go! I’m sorry. This was no way to greet you on your return.’
‘Nonsense! Let’s get the men in and we can all have a coffee together.’
When they were driving home later, Rick glanced across at Gracie. ‘I can’t thank you enough for what you did for Ma today, honey. It’s as if she’s been mentally locked away for months, but after talking to you today she seems to be a bit better.’
‘I think she was still in shock and somehow, for whatever reason, today as you heard for yourself, she let go and all her grief came to the fore, which is good. To keep things locked away like that is unhealthy but we all treat grief in different ways. Hopefully now, she’ll be able to deal with it. We’ll spend some time with them, invite them over for a meal when we’re settled in.’
‘You are an extraordinary woman Mrs Rider. After all I know that Ma wasn’t kind to you before.’
‘That was then, Rick, this is now, as you keep saying, those days are behind us. Now I feel I’ll be able to get along with Velda and that’s a bonus.’
It seemed no time at all, before Gracie was back in the swing of things, working with Milly, being greeted warmly by her old customers and the local storekeepers. She was deliriously happy with Rick, more than she could ever have thought possible. He brought fun and affection into her life, something that had been missing when she was married to Jeff and she thrived.
One Sunday they invited Ben and Velda over to lunch and Gracie cooked a roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, which were unknown to all of them, followed by lemon meringue pie. Velda, who was looking much better, tucked into the food with relish, complimenting Gracie on her cooking.
Another time, she and Gracie made a pilgrimage to Jeff’s grave to lay flowers. Neither of them spoke as they changed the water in the metal vase, threw out the old blooms and arranged the new. They both stood staring down at the grave, lost in their own private thoughts. As they walked away, Gracie took her mother-in-law’s hand and just gave it a squeeze. Words were unnecessary.
Rick’s business was thriving and he’d hired another mechanic and one evening he came home with a secondhand car for Gracie.
‘But I can’t drive!’ she exclaimed.
‘I know that honey, I’m going to teach you.’
She was thrilled but also petrified, which he found amusing.
‘Now don’t you fret, I’ll take you out on quiet roads until you feel safe enough to drive into town. There’s no rush, we’ll just take things easy.’
He was very patient and eventually, after a great deal of practising, Gracie felt brave enough to drive in the town. She proved to be very able and soon passed her test, thrilled to be able to go where she pleased. She even took Velda shopping.
When the snows came, Gracie experienced her second winter in Colorado. She’d never seen so much snow as the fall this year. Rick, Gus and Frank, the new mechanic, had to dig out the entrance to the garage and the footpaths outside. She remembered how Milly had once described a really bad winter here and now she saw it for herself. But she also learnt to enjoy it when Rick took her out with a couple of bobsleighs. They were like children, swishing down hills, tumbling over in the snow. They put chains on the tyres of the car to stop it sliding and, in time, she learnt to cope with it all. In the spring, their happiness was complete when she discovered that she was pregnant. Gracie sat down and wrote to Valerie, telling her the good news.
Valerie Johnson opened the letter from her friend and was overjoyed when she read of Gracie’s pregnancy. She and Max had also been trying for a baby. They felt the time was right, but so far they hadn’t met with success. The doctors assured them that nothing was wrong so they kept trying and after another exhibition they decided to take a visit to see Gracie and Rick, thinking a change of scenery and a break from city life was what they needed.
As Max said, ‘We need to get away from the hustle and bustle of New York. We’ve both been working far too hard, it’s time to take a holiday.’
Spring in the Rockies was a beautiful time of the year. The mountaintops were still covered with snow and the pine trees were verdant, however, storms had been forecast and these could be traumatic. Gracie had been warned but she wasn’t prepared for the downpour that followed. The air was filled with the sounds of thunder, lightning flashed, making her jump, and then hailstones bounced off the sidewalks. She had never experienced anything like it. Some of the roads were flooded, making her journey to work somewhat hazardous and Rick insisted on driving her to and fro. He was concerned about her driving herself now she was carrying a child.
Business in the shop came to a standstill as no one was coming out unless it was absolutely necessary. Eventually, at the end of another quiet day in the store, Milly told her not to come in until the storms had subsided.
Valerie and Max had flown into Denver just before the storm struck so they stayed in the city. For Valerie it wasn’t such a surprise after living in Singapore, where such weather was part of the tropics. She and Max stayed in the hotel and relaxed. They swam in the pool, ate in the restaurant and rested until several days later the weather begun to clear.
Max hired a car and they drove to Barton, where Gracie was waiting for them in the apartment. The three of them sat chatting, drinking coffee and eating sandwiches, catching up with each other’s news until Rick came home to join them.
That evening, they were all sitting round the dinner table when the phone rang and Rick excused himself to answer it. He came hurrying back carrying his jacket.
‘Ma’s been rushed to hospital’, he said. ‘She’s had a heart attack!’
Gracie looked at Valerie. ‘I’ll have to go and leave you, I’m sorry.’
‘Of course you must go,’ her friend replied. ‘Don’t you worry about us and I hope you come back with good news.’
When they arrived at the hospital they found Ben sitting waiting as the doctors examined his wife. He looked pale and drawn as he greeted them.
‘Thanks for coming,’ he said. ‘We were having a meal when suddenly Velda felt unwell and went to lie down. I called the doctor and he called an ambulance. He said she’d had a mild heart attack.’
Rick sat on one side of him, Gracie on the other. Until the doctor came to find them.
‘We have to operate,’ he told Ben, ‘but before we prepare her perhaps you’d all like to go and see her. Just keep her quiet and I’m afraid I must ask you to keep your visit short.’
They all walked into the room where Velda lay, looking very pale. She gave a wan smile.
‘I’m sorry to be such a nuisance,’ she said in barely above a whisper.
Ben took her hand. ‘Don’t be silly,’ he said in a choked voice. ‘You are going to be fine.’
She looked at Gracie and held out her other hand, which Gracie took in her own.
‘You take care of my grandchild, you hear?’
Gracie leant over and kissed her forehead. ‘You get better soon and you can help me look after her – or him.’ But her heart was heavy as she spoke.
The nurse ushered them out of the room. But as they left, there was a sound of a bell being rung from inside and suddenly there was a rush of nurses and the doctor.
It was pandemonium for a moment and the family stood by, hearts in their mouths wondering what on earth had happened.
Twenty minutes later the doctor emerged and walked towards them.
Gracie felt a shiver run down her spine, waiting for him to speak. He looked at Ben.
‘I’m sorry Mr Rider, but your wife suffered another heart attack and I’m afraid we couldn’t save her.’ He placed a hand on Ben’s shoulder. ‘I’m very sorry for your loss.’
Ben looked stricken and was unable to speak. Gracie led him to a nearby chair and sat with him while Rick spoke quietly to the doctor. Then Rick
came over to his father.
‘We can go and see her if you like, Pa.’ He looked at Gracie. ‘I think you had better sit and wait honey. We must think of the baby, I don’t want you getting upset.’ He leant forward and kissed her cheek, then took his father by the arm and led him into the room to see his wife.
Later, Rick and Gracie insisted that Ben come back with them, they didn’t want him to go home to an empty house. Rick said he would stay with his father that night but first of all, they had to let their visitors know what had happened.
Both Max and Valerie were solicitous towards Ben Rider. They all sat down and had a strong drink together, trying to understand what had happened.
As Ben sipped from his glass he said, ‘She never got over Jeff’s death and I figure she died of a broken heart.’
They let him talk. It was the outpourings of a man trying to grasp the fact that he was now alone, but unable to fully understand what had happened because it had been so sudden. Then Rick took him home.
When they were alone, Valerie turned to Gracie. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked with a worried frown.
Placing her hand on her bump, Gracie assured her that she was.
‘Well, I think you should go to bed,’ Valerie insisted. ‘I’ll come and sit with you for a while.’ Having lost a baby, she was concerned for her friend, worried that the sudden trauma may have an adverse effect on her.
She came back downstairs a little later. ‘She’s fast asleep,’ she told Max, with great relief.
‘She’ll be fine,’ he said, trying to comfort her. ‘But what a sad time for the family. What with Jeff and now his mother, they’ve been through it one way and another.’
‘We’ll stay and help Gracie,’ Valerie said. ‘There will be a funeral and all that that entails, I don’t want her to have too much to do, if that’s all right with you?’
‘Of course, that’s what friends are for. If there’s anything we can do to help, we will.’
Gracie was so pleased to have Valerie and Max during the days that followed. Valerie insisted on doing the cooking, leaving Gracie free to support her husband who was arranging the funeral and trying to keep his father together mentally and physically. It was as if they were all in limbo, all coping in their different ways.
Eventually it was over. The funeral was a quiet affair. Friends of Ben and Velda came to pay their respects and gathered after at the Rider’s house to a buffet, which Valerie and Gracie had prepared. When it was all over, Ben thanked them both, profusely.
‘I don’t know what I’d have done without you all,’ he said, tears brimming his eyes. ‘But now, we can get back to the real world. After all, life has to go on.’ He put an arm around Gracie. ‘Soon there will be a new life in the family and that will be wonderful. We must now concentrate on that and not the past.’
He had insisted that Rick return to his own home. ‘I’m fine, son. You have been a hero in my eyes, but now you must care for your wife and unborn child.’
As they curled up in bed together that night, Gracie looked up at her husband. ‘Your father called you a hero, well you certainly are mine, the way you looked after him when your mother died.’
He pulled her close. ‘It was the right thing to do. Now I can spend my time looking after you, so don’t you dare give me any trouble.’
The next two days were spent with Valerie and Max. Their visit hadn’t been as they had planned but they made up for it during the short time that was left and as they got ready to say goodbye, they promised to keep in touch and meet up again after the baby was born.
As she gave Valerie a hug as she was leaving, Gracie said, ‘I hope that you’ll soon be able to send me some good news too.’
Her friend chuckled. ‘I have to say I’m enjoying trying any way!’
‘You are so bad!’ laughed Gracie as she held the car door open for her. ‘And thanks for all your help, you have been an angel of mercy.’
As she watched them drive away, Gracie thought back to the time the two of them first met. Little did either of them know then just what good friends they would become and how thankful she was that they had met.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It was now early December and the snow lay deep outside. Gracie was near her due date and was heavy with child. Rick wouldn’t let her walk outside on the icy streets without him, in case she fell. It was so cold that she didn’t relish being outside too often. They had decorated the second bedroom as a nursery and Gracie would go in there, sorting through the baby clothes and diapers, they’d bought in readiness.
She was naturally excited about the forthcoming birth but in her heart she longed for her mother to be with her and at such times she was overcome with homesickness. Not that she shared these thoughts with Rick, who was looking after her so well. He had a woman come in once a week to clean the apartment and in the evenings he sometimes cooked the meal to give Gracie a break.
One morning he told her that he had to drive into Denver and if she needed anything she was to call Gus, who would be on hand in the garage. He assured her the roads had been cleared when she showed her concern about his journey.
‘Listen honey, in the States we’re well equipped to cope with winter snows. If we weren’t, the country would come to a standstill. The roads are clear so it’s perfectly safe. Now you take a rest after lunch and I’ll be back early this afternoon.’
Feeling weary and heavy, Gracie went to the bedroom to rest, placing a pillow under her swollen stomach for comfort, and fell into a sound sleep. She woke to hear Rick’s voice.
‘Gracie honey, wake up!’ She stirred and saw his smiling face. ‘You all right darling?’
She stretched languidly. ‘Mm, what time is it?’
‘Half-past three. You need to get up, we have a visitor.’
‘Oh, right.’ She climbed off the bed thinking that it was probably Milly who had popped in, as was her habit if business was slack, when she would leave the shop in the hands of her assistant. She quickly brushed her hair and followed Rick into the living room.
‘Hello Gracie love,’ said the woman standing by the window.
For a moment, Gracie looked at her completely stunned, then rushed into her arms.
‘Oh Mum! Is it really you?’
‘Yes, it’s really me.’ She hugged Gracie as tightly as she could with her bump getting in the way. ‘Heavens! Are you sure you’re not carrying twins?’ laughed her mother.
Gracie looked over to her husband who was grinning from ear to ear. ‘You kept this quiet,’ she said.
‘Rick paid for me to come over,’ Margaret Brown told her.
‘I knew you’d want your mother around when the baby came,’ he said, ‘so we made arrangements between us. We wanted to surprise you.’
‘Oh Rick, what can I say?’ She walked over to him and kissed him. ‘You have no idea how much this means to me.’
‘Oh I think I do. I know you so well, honey. Although you never ever said anything, I see sometimes that expression that means you’re feeling homesick. It doesn’t happen often but just lately it’s been there. Every woman needs her mother at such a time, so here she is!’
‘I’m sorry it has to be winter when you come, Mum, with all the snow and everything.’
‘My God Gracie, I’ve never been in such a cold place. The coldest English winters seem like autumn when you feel the cold bite into you here. It’s well below zero Rick said.’
‘I know, I hope you brought some warm clothes.’
‘Rick did warn me, fortunately, and I wore my winter boots, thank the lord!’
‘How’s Dad? I hope he didn’t mind you coming on your own.’
‘No, of course not. He sends his love. Rick is going to send him a cable to say I’ve arrived in one piece.’
Gracie looked admiringly at her mother. It must have been an extraordinary experience for her to make this journey and she said so.
Margaret smiled coyly. ‘Well I was a bit overwhelmed when Rick suggest
ed it, but he arranged for me to be looked after all along the way and here I am. I feel quite adventurous if truth be known. Wait until I get home! What tales I’ll have for my friends. They’ll all be jealous!’ She laughed gleefully at the thought.
Rick had bought a single divan to be put into the nursery for Margaret to sleep on, under the pretext that should they have a visitor, they could accommodate them. The room was big enough to take it and, if they did have a guest, the cot could be moved into their room. Margaret settled in.
One day she was taken to meet Milly and Chuck, walked round the shop and bought some things to take home as gifts and for a short time tasted the American way of life. She loved her trips to the diner and listening to the special language the girls used when ordering. She said when she went home she’d ask her husband, Ken, if he wanted his eggs sunny side up and giggled at the very idea.
‘He won’t know what I’m talking about so I’ll ask him if he wants them served on a raft!’ She thought this hysterically funny.
Two weeks passed and then Gracie woke in the night with pains, which came and went and increased in time. Margaret and Rick sat with her until her pains were coming every five minutes, and then they all got into the car and headed for the hospital.
When she was settled in her room, they both stayed with her, holding her hand when the pains were violent, mopping her forehead and trying to comfort her. Rick, who had insisted on staying, was beside himself.
‘Oh God Gracie honey! I’m so sorry to put you through all this. We won’t have any more I promise!’
As another pain gripped her Gracie yelled out and, looking at her husband, said, ‘You make me pregnant again, I’ll sue for divorce!’
Margaret just smiled to herself, knowing that once the baby was born, they’d think differently, but she did wonder if Rick was going to be able to stand the strain. With every pain his wife suffered he grew paler. The sweat stood out on his forehead as he watched her. He looked at his mother-in-law for help.
