Blossom Street Bundle. Debbie Macomber
the older woman’s condition. Dolores was improving at a steady rate. The last time she’d spoken with the head nurse, Anne Marie had learned that Dolores would be transferred from the hospital to a nursing facility for at least a week before she went home.
Anne Marie was fortunate enough to find a parking space on the street and decided to view that as a reward for thinking of Ellen’s needs rather than her own. Holding the child’s hand, she walked briskly toward the hospital’s main entrance.
“Will Grandma be able to talk more?” Ellen asked.
On their first visit the previous Saturday Dolores had a tube in her throat that prevented her from speaking in anything other than a hoarse whisper. “The tube’s out, so she should be able to talk normally again,” Anne Marie explained.
Dolores had slept through most of that visit, and afterward Ellen had seemed quieter than usual. The contrast between the child who’d listened to the Irish singers and the child who’d walked out of the hospital later that afternoon was striking. Anne Marie had tried to tell her that Dolores was doing well, but all Ellen saw was a very sick woman.
“Your grandmother’s going to be so proud of you for getting an A,” Anne Marie told her now.
“I know,” Ellen said solemnly.
They passed the gift shop.
“Should we bring her flowers again?” Ellen asked, looking at the floral arrangements displayed in the window.
“I’m sure the ones we brought on Saturday are still fresh.” After the concert on Saturday, they’d purchased white tulips and yellow daffodils from Susannah’s Garden, the flower shop next to the bookstore. Dolores had hardly seemed aware of the bouquet, which, given the circumstances, was understandable.
They walked directly to the elevator and Ellen pushed the button for the fifth floor, which was reserved for surgical patients. The doors opened in front of the nurses’ station.
When they entered the room, Dolores was sitting up in bed, watching the television mounted on the wall. The flowers in their vase rested on the stand beside her bed. Although the room was a semi-private, she was the only patient. The moment she saw Ellen, Dolores’s expression changed to one of rapture. “Oh, my little Ellen, my little love.”
“Grandma! Grandma!” Ellen rushed toward the hospital bed with such enthusiasm she bounded into the mattress.
“Oh, Ellen, it’s so good to see you.” Dolores turned off the TV, focusing on her visitors, and held out both arms.
Anne Marie lifted Ellen up for a moment so she could gently hug her grandmother. She was moved almost to tears by the deep affection between them. This was love in its purest form. A child and her grandmother.
“I got an A on my spelling test,” Ellen said, thrusting the paper at Dolores.
“Oh, Ellen! I’m so pleased.”
“She studied hard,” Anne Marie said.
“This was all the spelling words since Christmas, too.”
“All the words?” Dolores’s eyes widened with appreciation.
“Yup, and Stevie Logue and me were the only kids who got an A.”
“That’s excellent, honey.” Dolores reached for her pitcher of water. “Ellen,” she said, “could you do me a favor? Would you please go to the nurses’ station and ask if I can have some more ice?”
The little girl nodded and took the pitcher, obviously gratified to be performing this important task for her grandmother.
“How’s she doing?” Dolores asked urgently.
Anne Marie smiled at her. “Really well.”
“I knew I could trust you,” Dolores said as tears filled her eyes. “I hadn’t even met you, but I knew you were the one from everything Ellen had to say about you.”
“I’m happy to help.” Anne Marie discovered this was the truth, that it had become the truth.
“Ellen likes you.”
“I like her, too.”
“If anything happens to me…” Dolores continued, leaning forward to clasp Anne Marie’s arm.
Shock bolted through her. “You haven’t had bad news, have you?” Surely the medical staff would’ve told her if that was the case. Still, she wasn’t family, and she didn’t know how liberal the hospital’s policies were in regard to non-relatives.
“No, no, I’m doing well, according to the doctor,” Dolores said.
“Oh, thank goodness!” Anne Marie couldn’t hide her relief.
“But I’m not a new dishwasher.” Dolores smiled, releasing her grip on Anne Marie. “That’s what the young woman who operated on me said. I don’t come with a guarantee that all my parts are going to work perfectly for the next five years.”
“Of course not. No one does.”
“But…I feel better than I have in months.”
That definitely boded well.
“Still,” Dolores said thoughtfully, “one never knows.”
Anne Marie swallowed. She wondered if Robert had any premonition when he woke up that it would be the last day of his life. She wondered if he’d experienced any warning signs. Had there been any pain? Nausea? Tingling in his fingertips? Had his left arm ached? Did he assume the pressure in his chest was just heartburn? If she’d been living with him at the time, would she have recognized what was happening and been able to help?
Anne Marie didn’t have the answers to any of those questions and they would forever haunt her.
“One never knows,” she echoed bleakly.
“I gave birth to two daughters,” Dolores told her.
“I know.”
“I tried to be a good mother after their father left me.”
“I know,” Anne Marie said again.
Once more there were tears in the older woman’s eyes. “I have no idea where I failed and there’s no going back. Candace and Clarisse,” she whispered. “Such beautiful girls. And now…”
“I understand.” Anne Marie spoke soothingly, seeing how distressed Dolores was.
Dolores seemed to reach some decision. She turned to Anne Marie and took her arm again. Her eyes were fierce. “You have to promise that if anything happens to me you won’t let Ellen go back to her mother.”
“But it’s not up to—”
“She’s on meth,” Dolores broke in. “The last time I saw her was in court. Her hair was falling out and her teeth were rotting in her head and she’s barely thirty years old. My daughter is killing herself.”
“You have sole custody of Ellen?”
“Yes. Promise me you won’t let Ellen go back to her.”
“I’m sure the Child Protective Services wouldn’t—”
“Promise me,” Dolores insisted, her hand tightening on Anne Marie’s forearm.
“But I—”
“I won’t rest until I know Ellen will be with someone who loves her. Promise me.”
Anne Marie could see that it would do no good to argue. “I promise.” She suspected the state would never allow it, but she had to calm the woman down and there was no other way to do it.
Dolores relaxed her hold on Anne Marie’s arm. “Thank you,” she breathed.
“You’re the one who’s going to raise Ellen,” Anne