The Weeping Widow

XV

(yall why i number the last chapters wrong💀 chile embarrassing)

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As I was walking into the kitchen Emrys's grandmother was standing at the counter pouring her cornbread in a cast iron skillet which made me smile cause I knew that was something Emmy wanted. She loves her some cornbread.

"Hey Tammy. When you're done can we sit down and talk?" I asked as I stood next to the table. She looked up at me and nodded before speaking.

"We surely can. I'll put this in the oven and we can sit in my office and talk." She said sweetly as she continued what she was doing.

I stood there and watched as her as I waited for her to finish and I realized that she and Em shared alot of the same characteristics and features. From the way they both paused and when trying to remember to do something, to the order they put things away. Soon she was done so she quickly washed her hands before leading me to her office.

"You can sit in the recliner if you like." She said as she walked around her desk and sat in her office chair. I nodded and went over and sat down before looking around her office for a second before replying.

"I had a few questions to ask you. Pertaining Emrys's early life." I said causing her to nod.

"I figured you would. She had alot of questions herself and I wish I had all the answers. But I do have most so ask whatever you'd like to know."

"Well foremost I'd like to know about her mother, your daughter." I started causing her to nod. She sat for a few seconds and gathered her thoughts before speaking. 

"Well, my middle child is her mother, her name is Michelle. She had Emrys when she was 21 and had my second grandchild, Savannah, when she was 23. She has always suffered from some mental health challenges but those years Emrys was with us she was doing well. Then in 2007 Savannah passed away and her mental health started declining and that's when CPS took Em away. I had been fighting to get custody of her while she was young but her mother wouldn't sign over her rights and she kept getting moved from foster home to foster home until I lost contact and it honestly didn't take that long to happen." She paused for a second before continuing.

"She kept getting new social workers and they wouldn't be consistent on telling me where she was getting moved and one day she got moved out of state to stay in a group home for young children and that was the last place I had knowledge of. I would call to try and check on her but no one would answer; and the one time someone did answer she was no longer there and I guess that was when she changed her name because whenever I asked for Mya  I couldn't find her."

I silently nodded taking in everything she was telling me and it was all coming together, very slowly but it was surely making sense.

"During those years Chelle had more children but she was never in the right state to take care of them. She was basically working herself to death and everyone else was raising them but we eventually got tired. That's when her dad stepped in and agreed to help raise them along with my husband and I and some of our children. But after she had my last granddaughter she slipped so bad that I ended up having her institutionalized." She said making my eyes widen slightly.

"She barely had the will to live so she didn't worry about other people's lives either. She was a danger to everyone around her cause she just didn't care anymore. The last time I had visited her she was doing better but I could tell she wasn't there mentally. They were giving her all types of medicine but I knew that wasn't my baby girl, there was no life behind those eyes." She sighed with a small frown before continuing.

"Emrys told me earlier that her mother was the one that had orchestrated all of this so I called the hospital and they said that she was well enough to be released but it's obvious that she wasn't. So I had to call the police in Wisconsin and tell them what she was doing and to protect my other grandbabies cause I don't know what the hell is wrong with this girl."

"Does anyone go and tell her about the kids? If they have she might have formed some obsession with them or something." I chimed in.

"No one is supposed to. The doctors advised us not to because they were a negative trigger for her." She explained causing me to nod.

"You know Emrys was really struggling to decide if she wanted to reconnect with you all. She had felt you all had forgotten and her and replaced her because she also spent years looking for you all and had no luck. Her memory has been repressed due to traumatic things happening in her foster homes so she couldn't remember much about you all. All she knew was that your nickname was Tammy." I explained causing her to chuckle.

"When she was little she use to always call my name. It was Grammy this or Grammy that so I would tell her 'Grammy's gone. This is Tammy." She replied causing me to laugh.

"You said 'Grammy's off duty now. Try again later.' Girl I understand, grandkids drive you crazy." I added on as we continued to laugh before easing into a comfortable silence.

"Let me go check on this cornbread then we can finish talking." She said as she got up and walked back out to the kitchen.

I nodded and leaned back as I began to piece together Em's life in my head.

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word count: 987
edited