C just in case. I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon and he’ll be with Linda.” Linda was Noah’s regular babysitter, and Noah and Erin were very close to Linda and her family.
“Then you better stay home and rest.”
“You know I will. I’m no martyr.”
“Call me when you’re back from the doctor. Let me know how it went, what he said.”
“Sure,” she said. Then she coughed hard and they ended the call.
Erin didn’t call back. Instead, it was Linda who called a few days later. She explained that as soon as she examined Erin, the doctor called an emergency transport. She was taken to the hospital and admitted to the ICU with an advanced case of pneumonia, and in a very short period of time, she had passed away. Just slipped away. They resuscitated her twice and had her on life support for about twenty-four hours.
Devastated and in shock, Hannah headed for Madison at Linda’s first call, as did their other two best friends, Sharon and Kate. They all stayed with Noah at Erin’s house and made the funeral arrangements. They not only made all the arrangements, they paid for everything, as well. According to Erin’s wishes, she preferred to be cremated and have a celebration of life. You wouldn’t think a thirty-five-year-old woman would have articulated such desires, but she had a child, was estranged from her family, worked as a paralegal and had spelled out her wishes in a very precise will. The four women had been very close since college, kept in touch, saw each other regularly even though three of them lived in Minneapolis and Erin had moved to Madison after college.
It was a very complicated and unpleasant situation. Erin and her mother had always had a strained relationship and hadn’t spoken in years. The main cause seemed to be a half brother who had been a delinquent since he was quite young. Erin said he was abusive and her mother had always stood up for him, even when she witnessed his horrible treatment of Erin. There was a time shortly after Hannah met Erin that Erin’s brother had beat her, though he was five years younger. The police had been called. Erin wasn’t too badly hurt but her mother pleaded with her to say it hadn’t happened, claim she’d fallen so Roger wouldn’t be arrested. He had only been fifteen at the time and had already been in lots of trouble. Erin refused and mother and daughter, being on opposite sides, withdrew from each other. Their communication from that point on was spotty and never friendly.
In fact, something Hannah and Erin had in common, something that had bonded them in college and later, was their difficulty with their mothers. Hannah’s mother had passed away a couple of years ago but Erin’s was still going strong, still protecting her son, regularly asking Erin to help Roger. Erin finally took a job in Madison when she was about twenty-six mainly to put distance between herself and her family.
Despite her troubled relationship with her mother, Erin was a wonderful, loving, happy person and had many good friends in and around Madison. Erin’s mother was notified of her daughter’s death but it wasn’t really a surprise that no family members attended the celebration of life. The place was throbbing with people, all stunned and grieving, for she had always been a healthy and vibrant young woman, so active and positive. There hadn’t been a man in her life at the moment, but a couple of exes turned up to pay their respects and to check on Noah, though none were Noah’s father.
And that was where things got really complicated. Erin’s will indicated that she didn’t want Noah to be raised by her mother or her brother. She was afraid her mother would allow Roger near and that he’d be abusive to Noah. Her will was very clear. Calling on a years-old promise, Noah was to go into Hannah’s custody. Hannah, who wondered if she’d ever marry, wondered if she even wanted to anymore, and who was slowly getting used to the idea that she’d never have children. Hannah, who had called off not one but two weddings.