you for cooking while I was gone, Carmen.”
“Tootsie, I’m so, so sorry.” Carmen’s eyes floated in tears as she hugged Tootsie. “What can I do?”
“You’re here with me, and you’ve got a nice little dinner made. Let’s eat. My mama always said that food and friends were a great comfort,” Tootsie said.
Luke sniffed the air. “I smell something spicy.”
“It don’t take much to make a gingerbread with warm lemon sauce for dessert,” Carmen told him. “It’s in the oven with the casserole.”
“Good Lord, I’m going to gain fifty pounds while we’re here.” Tootsie’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“And you’d still be tiny even if you did,” Diana told her.
When they finished reloading the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer, they gathered around the dining room table, sitting in the same places that Tootsie had assigned the day before. Luke said grace, and then Tootsie raised her glass of tea.
“What are we toasting?” Diana asked.
“To Midge and to lifelong friendship,” Tootsie said.
“To Midge,” they chanted as they raised their glasses and took a drink.
“I’ve got something to say now while we pass this food around the table. I don’t want to be mollycoddled. Midge was ready to go, and although I’ll miss her, I’m glad she’s gone. Seeing her like that broke my heart and helped me see what a huge blessing it was that Smokey had good health up to the last minute of his life.” She stopped and took another sip of her tea. “I’m already in the grieving process, and I don’t intend to go back and start all over with denial. I’m going to let Midge go with dignity, in her own way and her own time.”
“That’s good, Aunt Tootsie,” Luke said.
“And now for the rest of the story . . .” Tootsie glanced around the table. “I’m very grateful that y’all are on this journey with me.”
Diana’s breath caught in her chest. Had Tootsie insisted that they go with her because she was sick and knew this would be her last trip?
“We’re the ones who are grateful that you brought us along. We need this time with you to get through our own problems,” Carmen said.
“When we get old, the biggest blessing in the world is simply to be needed,” Tootsie said. “Now enough of that. Tomorrow we’ll go to Midge’s service, have dinner with Sissy and the people who loved Midge, then come home to live, love, and make an attempt at happiness. That’s what Smokey would tell me, and that’s what we’re goin’ to do. I hope I live to be a hundred, but if my time is up tomorrow, I hope I die like Smokey did.” She snapped her fingers. “One minute on this side of eternity and then, in a single breath, on the other side.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Carmen said.
Life, love, and happiness. Life, one doesn’t have a choice about. Love is negotiable. Happiness—that’s the tough one, Diana thought.
Chapter Nine
Diana hated funerals, but there was no way she wouldn’t go with Tootsie to support her the day of Midge’s service. But by midafternoon, she felt like the walls were closing in on her. Tootsie was surrounded by people she knew, so Diana thought it was all right to slip out the back door. She rounded the corner of the house and walked through the yard and into the pecan orchard out beyond that. She’d gone quite a way into the wooded area when she found a log with all the bark peeled off that made a perfect bench.
During the past month, too much sadness had surrounded her, and she needed a break, something to take away the heaviness that felt like a cold, wet blanket on her shoulders. Too much change, too quickly, was taking its toll on her. First, Smokey dying, then the girls leaving, Carmen’s divorce, and now Tootsie’s best friend was gone. She heaved a sigh of relief just knowing that Tootsie hadn’t wanted the whole bunch of them to join her because she was sick, too.
Thank goodness she, Joanie, and Carmen had all packed a Sunday outfit just in case Tootsie wanted them to go to church with her. But the flowing muted-green skirt and matching emerald cardigan Diana had brought with her sure weren’t what she’d call right for a funeral. A north wind rained leaves down around her and went right through her thin sweater. She gathered the front of it in a fist to pull it closer to her and watched a squirrel dash up one of