The excitement of it was fluttering through her like a flock of butterflies.
As it turned out they’d both been adopted by a family named Hudson not Hunter, so Caldonia had been right about some things and wrong about others. Margaret would be going back to visit Caldonia sometime soon, but she already knew she’d not mention the error. What Caldonia had given them was enough to find Dewey, and that in itself was a huge blessing.
Margaret and Tom were the first to arrive at Oliver’s house.
“Oh dear,” she said as Claudia opened the door. “I hope we’re not too terribly early.”
Claudia laughed. “You’re family. When family shows up early, we just put them to work.” She led Margaret into the kitchen and handed her a stack of plates to carry out back where Oliver was setting up the tables. Tom offered to lend a hand with the furniture and disappeared out the door.
For the next hour, Margaret worked alongside Claudia in the kitchen. She mixed mayonnaise into the potato salad, arranged sprigs of parsley around the edge of the cheese platter, and helped to frost the cupcakes. When the doorbell chimed, Claudia smiled and said Margaret should get it.
“It’s probably Maggie. She’s been dying to meet you.”
Maggie, eight months pregnant and walking sway-backed, came with her husband and a shaggy dog named Spike. Nellie and her family arrived moments later with Edward and his wife not far behind. Dewey and Ellen were last to arrive. By then the back yard was abuzz with conversations floating back and forth.
Margaret didn’t recognize Nellie immediately. They were sisters who’d once slept in the same bed, but time had darkened Nellie’s hair to a blond that could easily be called brown. Later, when Nellie’s girls were busy playing a ring toss game, Margaret caught the sound of high-pitched laugher and turned around.
It was a sound she remembered. The laughter came from the second youngest, the one with hair as gold as Nellie’s once was and a cascade of curls tumbling down her back. Margaret smiled. The child was a spitting image of the little sister she remembered.
Edward was an even greater surprise. He looked more like their daddy than the toddler she’d known.
“Do you remember anything about Coal Creek?” she asked.
He laughed. “Not really. The few memories I do have probably came from stories Mom and Dad told about going to Coal Creek and bringing me home to live with them.”
“Mom and Dad?”
He laughed again, this time a hint of blush colored his cheeks.
“The Hudsons,” he explained. “We grew up calling them Mom and Dad.”
“I’m glad you had a happy childhood,” she replied as inside she grieved for the terrible loss their mother must have felt. “You know, Mama loved you too. She loved all of us. Loved us enough to send us away. There’s no love bigger than that.”
“That’s what Mom told us,” Edward replied. “She said our birth mama was as beautiful as Nell and the most loving woman she’d ever met.”
“That was the truth,” Margaret said and smiled.
Shortly after the sun started its descent, they gathered at a table piled high with homemade salads and platters of meat. She sat with Tom at her side and Dewey directly across. As they laughed and talked, passing salt shakers and baskets of biscuits from one hand to the next, she looked at the long row of faces. Fourteen in all; 15 if she included Tom.
This was what family felt like. The warmth of it filled her heart and satisfied her soul in a way she’d never before known. For all those years she’d put her own dreams aside and let Albert make the decisions, but he’d been wrong. They’d never needed a bigger house or more money in the bank. What they’d needed was a family. She’d given up on having it the first time around but never again, she vowed. Never again.
They remained in Huntington for another three days, and the day before they left Margaret told Ellen they’d be going to Wheeling.
“Oliver was working for a glass manufacturer there. Tom believes we’ll be able to track him down.”
“Oh, wouldn’t that be wonderful. Please give us a call and let us know how you make out. Wheeling is not terribly far, and I’m certain Dewey would love to see him.”
Margaret promised she would stay in touch. As Tom pulled out of the driveway, she turned just in time to see Dewey step out onto the porch and wave goodbye. Her eyes grew