Crocodile tears

Chapter three: The funeral

As the years passed and the time arrived for Nan to leave this life we all gathered around her hospital bed and took it in turn to hold her hand...Nan breathed a sigh and I felt her grip on our hands relax...and we new she had gone....my lovely Nan had passed away...as we looked at her face a small tear fell from her eye onto my face as I kissed her goodbye.

A week after the funeral we had to empty her house....as we went from room to room we found memory after memory...old birthday cards...letters...small presents we had bought Nan over the years....all put neatly away in a drawer.

I suddenly remembered the silly little crocodile that I had bought all those years ago from Chester Zoo and laughed to myself at the fuss I had caused in that gift shop...I thought it was the greatest present of all time...and to a ten year old boy the most fantastic thing he had ever seen.

I thought back to the last time I had visited Nan and the crocodile was still hanging in its usual place above the fireplace as it had always been.

I asked Mum if she had come across it while packing Nans things...she replied no... so I resumed my search but to no avail....the crocodile was no where to be seen....and no matter how hard we searched the crocodile remained out of sight...maybe it didn't recognise the ten year old boy that had bought him all those years ago....after all.. that ten year old boy would not recgonise the man he had grown into .....the man who was franticly searching high and low for his Nans special present.....Nans little crocodile was never seen again.

After emptying the house me and mum made are way back home, I brought in some of nans things, I sit down and go threw her photo albums and look at all the family photos of when I was younger, mum walks in and sits down next to me and looks at the photo album to a tear sheds from her eye as the memorise come flooding back,