By the book – part 5

By the book - part 1
By the book - part 2
By the book - part 3
By the book - part 4


by Tom Gaylord

The next morning at breakfast, however, everything changed in one moment. When I came down to breakfast, I could see that my mother had been crying and my father seemed very quiet, as well. After I ate, my dad took me into the living room and told me that Grandma Sims had passed away the evening before!

I couldn't believe it! She was dead? I had just been with her all the day before and nothing seemed wrong. In fact, she seemed in great health to me. Dad said it had been very sudden and unexpected. She simply collapsed at her dinner table and was pronounced dead when the doctor arrived. A neighbor had been sharing dinner with her and he called the ambulance, but her doctor got there first.

The funeral was held three days later. It was the first funeral I ever attended, and I really let myself go, I'm afraid. I loved that woman so much! There was some kind of reception held at our house, but I stayed in my room and cried.

Over the next few days the family decided what to do with Grandma's place. All of the families got to take whatever they wanted from the house, but that didn't include my bow and BB gun, of course. I mentioned it to my dad and even tried to reason with him, but he knew how strongly my mother felt and he wasn't willing to go against her.

I was completely demoralized by the passing of my grandmother. Not only did it mean the loss of my most recently acquired prized possessions, it meant I would never see the grand old lady ever again. That sort of news comes hard to a youngster.

Well, what to do? I couldn't continue to mope around all the time, so after a few days of mourning I began to put my young life back on track. It was the middle of summer, so school was still a safe month and a half away, so I sought out my friends as a means to heal the wounds.

One evening about a week later we were all playing tag on a vacant lot and I happened to meet a new girl whose family had just moved in. Her name was Carmen and she was about a year older than me. She played tag real well and was faster than most of the kids including me, so I immediately respected her. After the game was over and I started home, she asked me to come over to her house the next day. I said yes without thinking, but the next morning in the sunlight I really felt foolish knocking on a girl's front door!
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