One Last Time

"Do you have all your things ready Mrs. Burnette?"

She silently nodded and the young nurse held her arm as she walked down the old, creaky front steps of her porch one last time. She turned her head towards the house and she thought of the day that she bought it.

She and Frank had just been married and he carried her across the threshold and into the living room in her wedding dress.

"It's all ours, our very own. What do you think Margret?"

"Oh it's fantastic, it's wonderful, it's beautiful!" she cried.

They pulled out of the driveway and started through town. Margret sat in the backseat looking out the window, looking at the town where she had lived her whole life. The car turned onto Park Street and drove by the town hospital. She thought about when her daughter was born.

"It's a girl!" announced the nurse. "Do you have a name?"

Frank held her hand and she looked up into his eyes and nodded.

"We want to call her Evelyn; it was my grandmother's name"

She held her daughter in her arms and Frank held his arm around her shoulder.

"She's beautiful, just like you." He said with a smile.

She pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket to dry her eyes as they started to water. She had been to that hospital several times as she became a grandmother and again a great-grandmother. She had seen life begun and lost there.

The car turned a corner by Jefferson Park. She and Frank had their first date there at the annual summer picnic years ago.

"Margret, you're the prettiest girl here in town, y'know?" He said as he presented her with a bouquet of daisies.

"Oh Frank, how you flatter me."

They snuck off by the pond to be alone for a few minutes. She shivered and he draped his jacket around her shoulders.

"D'ya think you'd be interested in seein' me again Margret?"

"I think I just might."

Her tears started to come faster now. She could see the nursing home at the end of the road and the cemetery off to the left. She thought of dear Frank's funeral.

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…" droned the pastor as everyone looked solemnly down at their feet.

Margret stood by her daughter and held her hand like she had when she was young. As the service ended, they walked over to his grave and dropped tears and flowers into the grave.

"Are you gonna be alright Mom?" asked her daughter as she gave her a hug.

"I'll do my best to be strong Evie, your father wouldn't want to see me upset."

She went home that night and cried harder than she ever had in her entire life.

"Okay, here we are! Let me help you out of the car."

She stepped out of the car as her fragile, old bones creaked. The nurse held her arm and led her towards the door. Margret turned around before she walked into the nursing home to see this poor, little town that held so many of her memories one last time.