Christmas on Honeysuckle Lane

by Mary McDonough

  Morgan smiled and returned the book to the table. “Why don’t you quote me something?”

  Emma turned away from the mirror. “Well, I haven’t got any of the poetry by heart,” she admitted, “but something I read just last night seems to have lodged in my brain. Here goes. ‘When all your desires are distilled; you will cast just two votes: To love more, And be happy.’ ”

  “Words of wisdom indeed.” Morgan raised an eyebrow. “But I’m not sure I could love you more than I already do.”

  “Try,” Emma teased.

  “Gladly.” In two strides he had enveloped her in his arms and kissed her.

  “Mmmmm,” Emma said after a moment. “This is very nice, but we’ll be late if we don’t hurry. You know how Danny can be about ceremonies!”

  Morgan released her. “At least he can laugh at himself now.”

  “But I’m one of the godmothers,” Emma pointed out. “I can’t be late!”

  * * *

  “Are you nervous, Mom?” Rumi asked. “You keep checking your watch. You never care much about what time it is.”

  Andie laughed a bit. They were sitting side by side on chairs that had been placed in a circle in the main meeting room of the Unitarian Universalist Church—the room where the Reynolds siblings had lit candles in memory of their parents the Christmas before—waiting for Daniel and his family to arrive. Members of the Spinelli family, most notably, Anna Maria’s parents and siblings, had arrived a bit earlier, and after greeting Andie and Rumi, had taken their own seats in the circle.

  “As a matter of fact,” Andie said, “yes. I am nervous. And yet, this is probably the most thoroughly receptive audience I’ve ever had to stand up in front of.”

  “Well, you’ve never been a godparent before. I mean, even though it’s not the same as being, say, a Catholic type of godparent, it’s still a big responsibility. I guess it’s normal you’d feel a bit anxious.”

  Andie took her daughter’s hand. She had been deeply touched when Daniel had asked her to stand up with Emma at little Andy’s child dedication ceremony. She loved her younger nephew with a strength she hadn’t felt when Daniel’s other children had been born. She didn’t question this attachment to the child; she simply acknowledged and respected it. And if it brought her back to Oliver’s Well more often, her daughter’s home, so much the better.

  It had been an exciting year for mother and daughter. Early that summer Rumi had visited Andie’s home in Woodville Junction. Andie had introduced her daughter to her friends and colleagues. They had “taken tea” using Caro’s Lenox tea service and had shared meals they prepared together. They had enjoyed long walks and periods of meditation. They had shared memories of Cliff and Caro, new vegetarian recipes, and laughter. They had talked about everything under the sun, from the past to the present to the future, from the spiritual to the mundane.

  At one point during Rumi’s visit, Andie had given her Caro’s wedding set. “You can do with it what you will,” she told her daughter. “You can sell it and use the money to help pay back your student loans or to save up for a house of your own one day. You can keep the rings in a safe deposit box at the bank and forget about them. Or you can wear the rings now. You don’t have to wait until you marry.”

  “I think I will save them to wear when I marry someday,” Rumi had replied. “I think Grandma would like that.”

  Rumi was still pursuing her studies in dental hygiene—as she pointed out, bills had to be paid somehow!—but with Andie’s and Bob’s encouragement she had also decided to study jewelry design at the GIA—the Gem Institute of America—at its New York City location, right in the heart of the Diamond District. “What if I can’t cut it?” she had worried. “The GIA is the big time.” Bob had replied that she would never know what she could achieve unless she tried. “Maybe I should just do the e-course and stay here in Oliver’s Well,” Rumi had suggested. To which Andie had replied that being in the company of teachers and other students, people who shared her growing passion for stones and creation, was bound to be infinitely more nourishing than sitting alone at home. In the end, Rumi had found the courage to make the commitment and as soon as she finished her dental studies she was off to the Big Apple.

  The sound of a door opening caused Andie to look over her shoulder to see Emma, Morgan, and Bob entering. She waved and whispered to Rumi, “Have you met the woman your father is seeing?”

  “Not yet. They’ve only been out a few times. I don’t think Dad wants to bother introducing me to someone who might be gone before long.”

  “Probably not,” Andie agreed. “But from what he’s told me, she sounds very nice. I guess we’ll just wait and hope for the best between them.”

  Emma, Morgan, and Bob greeted the Spinelli family, and then Bob slipped into the seat next to his daughter; Emma and Morgan sat to Bob’s right. A moment later, Daniel and his family arrived, and a few minutes after that the dedication ceremony began.

  After Reverend Fox had welcomed the Spinelli and the Reynolds families—“most especially, Andrew”—he spoke a few words about what it meant to belong to the community of those who shared and lived by the seven principles of the church. “Perhaps most important,” he said, “is our first principle, that of the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” And then he offered a blessing. After this, Daniel and Anna Maria expressed their hopes for their child’s life, including that he learn to embrace the virtues of justice, equality, and compassion, and then everyone gathered promised to support and to nurture Andrew as he grew.

  Finally, Andie was invited to offer a benediction from her beloved poet and prophet.

  “You were born with potential.

  You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams.

  You were born with greatness.

  You were born with wings.

  You are not meant for crawling, so don’t.

  You have wings.

  Learn to use them and fly.”

  When she had finished reciting the lines she knew so well by heart, she glanced at the others gathered around the baby who had brought them all together. She noted their smiles and their tears. She noted the joy that shone on their faces. And in that moment she felt such bliss as she thought she had never felt before.

  * * *

  “It was a lovely ceremony, wasn’t it, Daniel?”

  Daniel smiled at his wife, who was holding their youngest child in her arms.

  “It was,” he said. “And thanks again for agreeing to our naming my sisters Andy’s godparents.”

  Anna Maria smiled. “It was only fair, what with my siblings being godparents to Sophia and Marco. Oh, look!” she said. “There’s Richard Armstrong. He promised he’d come by.”

  Anna Maria went off to welcome the most recent guest to the celebration at number 32 Honeysuckle Lane. The Herberts were already there, as was Maureen Kline and her beau Jim, the elder Klines, as well as various locals and members of Anna Maria’s extended family. Reverend Fox and his partner had stopped by on their way to a family event of their own. The house was bursting with people and brimming with good feeling.

  Daniel smiled at the sight of his sister and her fiancée sharing a brief hug. Emma and Morgan had insisted on making all the food for the party. “Just this once, Danny,” Emma had said. “You need to take a break every now and again. And the day of your new baby’s dedication ceremony is the perfect time!” If certain dishes weren’t exactly as Daniel himself would have presented them—he would have served the duck sliders with chutney instead of blackberry jam—they were no less good for that.

  No doubt about it, Daniel thought, stepping aside to let two of the young Spinelli cousins dash through to the kitchen, this was a real celebration. At this time the year before he had been in a very dark place. Now, life was so much brighter, and he credited his wife as well as his sisters for helping him to cast away the demons—the regrets and haunting memories of the past—and focus on what mattered most, the presen
t and the future.

  And that future could be anything Daniel chose it to be. Earlier that year he had been scouted by Le Petit Versailles in Lawrenceville. It was an honor, but especially with a third child on the way, he had been and still was determined to stay in catering. It was a challenging business—made a bit easier by the kitchen upgrade the sale of his parents’ house has afforded—but it allowed a more flexible schedule than what could be found in restaurant work. And to be with his wife and children was the most important thing, hands down. That said, Daniel had taken on a few more private cooking students; the money was good, but more importantly, the work was becoming increasingly meaningful to him.

  Daniel noted that the elder Fitzgibbons hadn’t yet come by, though he was sure they would make an appearance at some point, if only to thank the Reynoldses yet again for the five-year loan of the George Bullock desk to the OWHA. At the end of the five years the Reynolds family would decide either to renew the loan or to bring the desk back to the house on Honeysuckle Lane. The plaque identifying the Regency piece thanked Caroline Carlyle Reynolds for her generosity; Daniel had come to see that the gift was a fitting tribute to his mother, after all. And if Mary Bernadette Fitzgibbon thought it odd that the offer of the desk had been once made, then retracted, then made again in an altered version, she was far too well bred to say anything.

  Daniel looked around at the guests once again. His mother- and father-in-law were comfortably settled on the couch—Emma’s couch—chatting with Jenna Herbert. His sister-in-law Gabriella was laughing with Emma. Richard Armstrong was deep in conversation with Daniel’s brother-in-law Carlo, also the owner of a restaurant. Daniel decided it was the time for a toast.

  “May I have everybody’s attention!” he cried. The living room quickly quieted, and following Daniel’s lead, the guests raised their glasses. “To Andrew Clifford Reynolds,” he said, “and his very bright future!”

  Before the guests could reply, Andy, in his mother’s arms, let roar, just once, but it was enough to silence everyone in the room—for a moment. Emma flinched and Rumi put her hands to her ears. Over laughter and the clinking of glasses, Bob turned to Daniel. “He wanted to add his voice to his father’s!” he said.

  “My, gosh, that child has lungs!” Andie declared.

  Anna Maria grinned at Daniel. “Just like his daddy.”

  “I’ll take him for a while, Mom,” Sophia offered.

  “No, I want him,” Marco protested. “You held him last time.”

  “Marco’s turn,” Daniel said with a smile. “There’s plenty of baby to go around.”

  “He is adorably chubby,” Rumi said. “I love chubby babies!”

  Once Marco was settled in a chair with his little brother firmly in his arms, Daniel went over to the food table to grab another of Morgan’s now famous steak tartar appetizers. Emma joined him there and took one of her own.

  “So,” Emma said, “I guess Marco doesn’t think babies are boring anymore.”

  “He and Sophia never stop arguing over who’s going to hold him or feed him or help with his bath.” Daniel shook his head. “Would I be jinxing things to say I have the perfect family?”

  “No,” Emma told him, linking her arm in his. “You wouldn’t.”

  A Reading Group Guide

  Christmas on Honeysuckle Lane

  Mary McDonough

  Discussion Questions

  1. Mourning takes as many forms as there are people to mourn. Talk about how each main character has been mourning and continues to mourn the loss of Cliff and Caro Reynolds. For example, Emma realizes that only after the passing of both parents has she been able to achieve a healthy detachment from them and feels somewhat guilty about this. Andie reveals that though always close to her father, only since he’s been gone has she begun to turn to him for advice. Perhaps Daniel is the character most negatively affected by the deaths of his parents, especially that of his mother, after which he has become obsessed with his self-imposed role as head of the family and with what he sees as his sisters’ unwillingness to honor the family traditions set by their parents.

  2. On a related note, discuss each sibling’s unique relationship with his or her parents, both while Cliff and Caro were alive and now that they are dead.

  3. Morgan Shelby says: “Knowledge of a parent as a fully rounded individual is impossible, no matter how long you have them in your life.” Talk about how Emma, Andie, and then Daniel feel when they learn about their mother’s first engagement and her interest in politics. Talk about what Daniel might imagine about the relationship his mother had with the correspondent named Susan, about whom Daniel knows nothing other than her name. Recall how Daniel reacts when Andie tells him what she remembers about the legal case of Brian Dunn and how their parents argued during the case. At one point Daniel admits to Emma that he is angry with their parents not only for dying but also for being ultimately unknowable. Neither Emma nor Andie express anger in this regard, though both wish that the communication between themselves and their parents had been more open and honest. The common theme among the siblings is regret.

  4. Emma, Andie, and Anna Maria all feel that Daniel is doing harm to them as well as to himself by trying to hold on to something fundamentally intangible and always changing—the emotional dynamics between and among family members. Daniel expresses a wish to take a photo of the “real” family. Andie wonders: “But what was the ‘real’ family? There was no fixed, unchangeable entity; everything was always in flux and every person saw and experienced a different reality.” Talk about your own family and how different members of that family either understand this or don’t—and the consequences that result.

  5. Emma and Morgan talk about how objects can contain or embody meaning and about how they can help a person to respect and treasure the past. Talk about the various physical objects that occupy the time and attention of the Reynolds family throughout the book—for example, the portrait of Cliff and Caro; the antique desk; the photos and videos; the Lenox tea service; Caro’s tweed jacket; Cliff’s love letter to Caro; the house itself.

  6. Emma and Morgan discuss the importance of ceremony. Emma says: “But sometimes people can lose track of what they’re supposed to be memorializing or honoring and get caught up in the pomp and circumstance of ceremony.” Morgan argues: “I’m not sure that’s always a bad thing. Maybe allowing the pageantry of an event to take over allows people to survive a moment or even a memory of grief.” In other words, pageantry has a cathartic affect. Do you agree?

  7. Talk about Andie’s choice to leave her child with her former husband and dearest friend in order to pursue what she believed to be her authentic life —a decision that her parents and brother were unable and/or unwilling to fully accept or understand. Bob, Emma, and Anna Maria recognize Andie’s generous and selfless nature and support her choice. When Caro dies, Rumi’s grief turns her against her mother, who she accuses of extreme selfishness. Discuss the variety of challenges Andie has had to deal with since leaving Oliver’s Well, and the many ways in which her brave decision has affected her family.

  8. About post partum depression Andie says: “A nice neat phrase to describe an evil thing that deprived a mother of taking joy in her child, an evil thing that deprived a child of her mother’s full devotion.” Talk about Andie’s subsequent guilt about what for a long time she viewed as her failure and how that guilt still to some extent determines her relationship with her hometown and her family.

  9. Emma thanks Daniel for being with their mother in her final moments; she feels it was a gift he gave to the family. Talk about Daniel’s decision (born of an almost crippling sense of duty) to be his mother’s caretaker and the unexpected toll that role has taken on him. Daniel says: “Death is always a surprise. At least, it’s always a shock, even if you’ve been expecting it.” Does this observation ring true for you?

  10. Daniel runs into his father’s childhood friend, who says: “You know, it’s funny how the people who are your friends i
n the early years of your life are so often the ones you want most to spend the last years of your life with.” Have you found this to be true in your own case or with older people you know?