13 Seascape Lane

“That looks to be it, Mrs. Beldon. If I could just get your signature one last time,” honestly the words were going in one ear and out of the other for Glynda Beldon. At the age of seventy-three, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she and her husband wouldn’t live forever but… they could try, couldn’t they? Then again, most couples couldn’t say they’d been married fifty-three years, but she and James could. They celebrated their fifty-third wedding anniversary only a couple of weeks ago.

“I’m just so relieved we had most of this figured out already,” Glynda said the words solemnly as she felt a hand on her back, the hand of her best friend Charlotte Jeffers. Charlotte and Glynda had gone to high school together, but it really wasn’t until later in life they’d become best friends. Both of them had only two kids — a boy and a girl. They’d married the same type of man although Clyde and James had their stark differences.

Charlotte’s husband had been a lawyer and later a judge whereas Glynda’s husband, James, had been everything from a construction worker to a carpenter, roofer, and a plumber. Construction was certainly James’ passion, though, hence the business he had started years ago. They were old souls; well mannered, raised right, and lovers of their family — just as Charlotte and Glynda are. It was something Glynda prayed had been passed down to her children.

“It does help. I felt the same way when Clyde passed on,” Charlotte’s words were comforting to Glynda as she finished signing the last document for the funeral home. Glynda remembered very well when Clyde passed away, it impacted she and James both. “I never thought Clyde would be taken as soon as he was, but he watched his own Mom struggle with his Dad’s death, so as soon as we hit fifty, he’d made up his mind to pre-pay our funerals and make those decisions,” Charlotte explained. “I suppose Clyde didn’t want me and the children to be left with the burden of everything, to instead spend our time together, grieving as a family should.”

Glynda and James hadn’t made their funeral plans quite as early as fifty years old — but by the time they were both hitting seventy, they knew it was time. As hard as it was for the two of them to go together to a funeral home and put down payments on caskets, vaults, and funeral services… Glynda knew that James would be happy knowing the burden wasn’t on her now. Yes, she still had to make a few last minute decisions and sign documents but the hard labor of it all was completed already; a definite relief.

“We’ll see you tomorrow afternoon, Mrs. Beldon, Mrs. Jeffers,” said the kind woman working at the funeral home as both Glynda and Charlotte made their way towards the door to leave. It amazed Glynda how fast yet how slow everything seemed to be going. Her husband hadn’t been deceased a full day yet and already his funeral visitation was set for twenty-four hours from now. Then again, she thought, back in her Grandparents and most certainly her Great-Grandparents days, when you passed away, you had a simple wake in the family home and then a burial the very next day after you passed on or at the very least the day after that. Back then there weren’t many funeral homes, expensive caskets and vaults — no, there were small family cemeteries and pine coffins entered six feet down in a man-made hole. My, things had progressed pretty far from back then…pretty expensively as well.

On the other hand, it felt like a lifetime already that her husband had been gone. In the course of a handful of hours, there was so much Glynda already wanted to say to him. They were never a silent couple: it ran in the Beldon family to be talkative and James, well, he definitely didn’t lack conversation skills. It was something he passed to his wife and they’d passed to their children; the art of conversation.

Glynda never understood it as she began dating James in 1961, the fact that he’d never met a stranger. The man seemed to be related to or know of every single person in Cedar Cove and the surrounding cities. For a man that hadn’t traveled much at all, he was the most worldly man she’d ever met and the thought of that excited Glynda Westfall, that’s why she’d fell head over heels for him so quickly.

Last night after the funeral home had been called and James’ body taken from their home, Glynda found herself sitting at the kitchen table having a cup of warm tea and glancing at the front page of the newspaper. Glynda had already read the newspaper once that day but, she always found something later on that she’d missed and she’d usually tell James about it. It was at that moment that she realized, in a way, how lonely the rest of her life was going to be without her soul-mate.

Who would she talk to now about the newspaper at nine o’clock in the evening? The answer she was struggling to grasp was that she had two children and four grandchildren she could call. James had siblings she could call, Glynda had cousins, friends like Charlotte… but none of them were James. Talking to someone else about something in the newspaper would never feel as natural as it did with James.

“Thank you for coming with me, Charlotte. I know it can’t be easy, bringing back old memories for you,” said Glynda as they walked towards the parking lot. “I won’t say it’s a cakewalk, but, I’ve been in your shoes and I’m happy to help you in any way I can,” said the widow of twenty years. That’s just who Charlotte was, she would help anyone and everyone if she could. As they were heading for Charlotte’s car, a voice hollering ‘Grandma!’ took the two old women by surprise and both turned around rather instinctively.

“Madi,” cried Glynda as her granddaughter, Madison, came running from across the parking lot and embraced her in a tight hug. The older woman couldn’t help but to let a few small tears leave her eyes — she hadn’t seen Madi since Christmas and to a Grandmother, four months felt like four years. As much as it warmed her to see her granddaughter, another part of Glynda ached that Madi had to return home for something like this: the passing of her Grandpa.

“I knew you’d be here,” said Madi to which Glynda nodded as she pulled back from the hug and gave her grandchild a once-over, as if taking in all the new things about her and seeing what had changed. It seemed her granddaughter was holding up well so far, perhaps better than she was. “I’m so happy you’re home,” said Glynda as she reached into her purse and pulled out a handkerchief, blotting her eyes gently.

“I’m so sorry,” murmured her granddaughter and Glynda couldn’t help but to solemnly smile, something she’d learned to do quite well over the years, dealing with loss. The loss of her own parents and then all of her siblings. It was a whole new ballgame, so to speak, to hear condolences about your spouse passing on. This was a person Glynda had shared fifty-three years with; a person she had woke up beside every single morning and went to bed beside every single night.

“Don’t be sorry, Madi. He wasn’t sorry that you were off at college — you’re a month from your degree! I’m only sorry this had to happen so close to your graduation,” Glynda hadn’t attended college in her prime, but she wasn’t born yesterday. The last month of Madi’s four-year school career couldn’t be easy: exams, exams, and probably even more exams, she imagined. A picture ran through Glynda’s mind of Madi living at the kitchen table in her apartment with a pot of coffee going and earphones in while she studied meticulously. The thought of that almost eased the seventy-three-year-old woman, somehow.

“You know I’m a teacher’s pet, Grandma. I think my grades will be perfectly fine,” her granddaughter laughed and it reminded her so much of James. James was truly the one to teach their children and grandchildren how to laugh and in fact, he’d taught her to laugh when they started dating. It was a trait that none of the Beldon’s lacked apparently. Laughing, communication, how to be a people person; all the Beldon’s acquired it, but especially James.

“Have you been to see your parents?” Glynda questioned her granddaughter who nodded and helped her into the passenger seat of Mrs. Jeffers’ car. “They were my first stop — Mom said you’d be here with Charlotte so I wanted to catch you. You were at the top of my list,” those words put a smile on Glynda’s face that could illuminate all the darkness in the world. “I’ll see you after a while, though, Grandma. Maybe I could come over and cook you something to eat?”

It was kind of Madi to offer but honestly in the last day, Glynda hadn’t had much of an appetite. In fact, she’d lived solely off of coffee and gingersnaps that morning. “If your Uncle hasn’t already cooked dinner, I’d like that,” she replied as Charlotte started the motor of her old ‘78 Buick Riviera.

“I’ll see you later,” Madi told her grandmother before the car door shut. It was bittersweet — being so happy to have Madi home but the reason she was home plagued Glynda as she and Charlotte left the funeral home. So much plagued her, she didn’t even know where to begin. A penny for her thoughts would be far too cheap.

~*~

Marriage was not a new color for Grace Sh— err, Grace Harting, but being married to her new husband Cliff — that certainly was a new color and she was hoping it was one she’d wear well. Grace met Cliff for the first time nearly three years ago thanks to her best friends mother, Charlotte Jeffers. Their relationship still seemed to have happened so fast but, he was right: it was time to take a step like this. In the depth of her mind, she had absolutely no doubt that Cliff was the man for her.

Grace couldn’t live in the shadow of her divorce and the shocking suicide of her first husband, Dan Sherman, for the rest of her life. A part of Grace and even her girls hadn’t been surprised when after a year, Dan had been found and the coroner reported it as a suicide. Dan’s upbringing had been hard, he’d went into the Army at eighteen to get away from the place he’d called ‘home,’ and the Army did more harm than good to Dan.

Cliff had broken down Grace’s walls after everything that happened and she thanked him for it every single day. Dan was just…different, different than he had been when they got married. It killed Grace to think back to when Dan first ‘disappeared.’ Grace believed it had been nothing more than an affair - that’s the way he had acted for months before his disappearance. Oh how wrong she and her girls turned out to be. They had two amazing daughters together - Kelly and Maryellen, and they had been Dan’s world. Dan was a wonderful Father and a kind Grandfather, when he had wanted to be at least. Their youngest daughter, Kelly, was married to a wonderful man, a mother of one, and lived across the state: she had been the apple of Dan’s eye until the day he died. Whereas their eldest daughter, Maryellen, lived in Cedar Cove once again and was definitely the apple of Grace’s own eye.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Gracie?” His voice was a woman’s dream, even here in Washington he had this sort of southern drawl from working on a farm his whole life. It was the kind of drawl that made a woman’s insides tingle, her knees tremble. But Grace needed this, she needed to let go of what used to be her life and move on with a new life. This would be the biggest step.

“Positive, honey. We’ve taken the first big step and this is the second one; I can’t ask you to leave the ranch and move into Cedar Cove, it would be impossible for you to keep a ranch and live here,” and Grace wasn’t wrong, she knew she wasn’t. Financially, it was just a silly prospect to keep two residences. Neither she nor Cliff made the kind of money to have a summer home and a winter home, if you will. “It wouldn’t be impossible, but we both know it’d be hard,” replied Cliff and that’s exactly why Grace knew this had to happen. “Plus, I like the ranch. I like Miss Annabelle,” one of Cliff’s favorite horses, “and I love the house. It’s much bigger than this and although it may not have the good memories this house has, it certainly doesn’t have the bad ones.”

That had been Grace’s driving force over a year ago to sell her home of the last almost 30 years, 204 Rosewood Lane. It held a lot of good memories, but it also held a lot of bad. This would be she and Dan’s 29th year of marriage had Dan not disappeared during their 26th year of marriage. Grace had filed for divorce shortly after he disappeared to save herself from financial ruin and also because she was just so determined that he was having an affair — it had all sounded logical to Grace’s private investigator, Roy McAfee, at the time.

Dan and Grace had bought this home as newlyweds and it’s a good thing they did, because not too long after that, here came Maryellen and then Kelly. Maryellen would be turning twenty-seven shortly and Kelly had already celebrated a twenty-fifth birthday. Having already given her a grandchild, Kelly always did seem to live in a faster-pace than Maryellen. Perhaps it was because Maryellen being the older of the two, was sort of like the “protector.” Grace noticed this especially after her Father’s suicide - she had taken on the role of “man of the house,” so to speak.

That was something else that weighed heavily on Grace Harting’s mind — her eldest daughter’s recent surprise engagement. One moment Maryellen and Jon were having trouble, near breaking up even, and the next her daughter had accepted a spontaneous marriage proposal. Grace knew she’d taught her daughter to read people better than that, to not be so naive… but Grace almost had the feeling there was a lot to Maryellen she didn’t know yet.

“It’ll be a new chapter for you, Gracie, I know that; it’ll be a new chapter for me, too. I’m excited to start it,” Cliff spoke softly and Grace decided to take a moment to stop packing and open up the living room window, letting in the warm April sunshine. “Life is just changing so much, Cliff, and maybe not in a bad way. I worry about Maryellen and Jon, this fast engagement of theirs. I know they’ve been together almost two years but, if you’d have just heard the way Maryellen was talking about him last week,” Grace’s voice trailed as Cliff stood and wrapped his arms around her from behind.

“If Maryellen is anything like her Mom, then I know she’s going to be alright. Jon said he was moving back to Cedar Cove, they were opening the restaurant, and the ranch is only ten minutes out of town, Grace. You know you can keep a watchful eye on them,” and the thought of that comforted Grace like nothing else. She didn’t know what she would have done if Maryellen would have gone back to New York City with Jon. The last year that Maryellen spent there had been hell on Grace — sure she’d seen Kelly a few times and her grandson too but, Maryellen was so far away and that had drove Grace insane.

“In fact, until she and Jon are up on their feet, I think they should move out to the ranch too, to the guest room,” Cliff suggested and Grace’s eyes lit up with a newfound hope. She turned in his arms abruptly and found herself looking up into those blue cowboy eyes of his. “They’ve been apartment searching like crazy ever since I mentioned moving in with you after the wedding, now they could put that on the back burner and put the restaurant back as priority number one,” explained Grace as she watched Cliff nod his head. “We’ll talk to them about that when they get back?” Cliff offered and that must have been what Grace needed to hear because she went right back to packing up the living room with a new found fervor.