"Thank you very much, Katie. The urn is gorgeous."
Katie smiled at her mother-in-law. "It's no bother. Just what you're entitled to."
Sheila smiled, putting the green and white marble urn with a gold plate with her daughters name and a small engraved photo up on the mantlepiece. "She's home. God, how lucky she is to have four homes."
Katie sniffled. "Yeah. We're heading over to St. David's soon. School is starting in two weeks, so there won't be any kids there, just the principal to bring me in."
Sheila nodded. "Good. It's a lot better than when ye were there. Zoë's fundraiser changed it completely."
"Thank fuck. The place was a dump when we were there. Lots can change in 25 years." The two women chuckled, and sat back down. "When's Michael coming back?"
"Should be soon, he's just gone down for some bread. You aren't in a rush to get to David's, are you?"
Katie checked her phone, shrugging. "Don't have to be there till twelve, it's only half ten now. It's only a walk so no rush at all."
Sheila smiled. "That's great, love. How're the kids holding up anyway?"
Katie sighed, bringing her coffee up to her lips. "Still very shaken. What hurts Elsie the most is that it happened after her birthday. She thinks it's her fault in some way."
Sheila shook her head. "The poor child. None of us could've done anything. And Max and Brook?"
"Brook is handling it better than I expected. She's talking a lot about it, and even doing the taekwondo with Elsie. Max is just delighted that Jen is back around, it was awful when she wasn't able to be there for the funeral. Spending a lot of time with her, planning. He's hesitant to move back up north, he thinks he'd be abandoning us. But his boss is begging him to go back up, they're short staffed as it is."
"Want me to have a chat with him? I might come up later this week with some waffles."
Katie smiled. "You can convince anyone of anything with those famous waffles. Do, sher, he'd be happy to see you anyway. And so would the girls."
"Yeah. It's only been a few weeks but I miss them already." Sheila put her coffee down, slightly bending over to hold Katie's knee. "How are you doing, pet?"
Katie sighed. "You know the way they say every day gets easier?"
"Yeah?"
"That's bullshit. My heart aches so badly, I think it's going to break my ribs some days. She was such a constant for me for 25 years, and now she's gone and all we can do is carry on as usual. I got a long hot water bottle and sprayed some of her perfume on it just so it can kind of feel like she's holding me at night. If it weren't for the kids, I would've lost my mind in that house already. She's everywhere even though she's gone. The empty spot in my bed, that rocking chair of hers in the sitting room, those photos. I don't think I'll ever stop missing her."
Sheila gave her a small smile. "It's very hard. I'm seventy-five, she should be burying me soon. We only started working on our will about five years ago, she was working on it fifteen years ago. It's all wrong. Michael hasn't been the same since. I adored her, of course, she was my daughter. But she was definitely a daddy's girl, they had such a strong bond. When she'd call every week, she'd spend most of the time talking to Mikey."
"Oh, I know. In Italian, of course. Think they were conspiring against us, Sheils."
Sheila laughed, going to pick up the ware before Katie stood up and took it out. "Thanks, pet."
"Tis nothing, Sheila." She went into the kitchen, putting the cups and plates into the sink and turning the tap on. She looked at the photo on the windowsill, a small portrait of the three of them and Zoë's old dog Rina. Katie dried her hands and turned off the tap, picking up the photo and smiling at it.
