Epilogue
I thought of it again the other day. It was while I was visiting Mike (grandchild #2).
"Mike," I thought, "at a year and a half you really should be saying something else besides gibberish." So I pointed to Marianne and said, "Mom - ee. MOM - EEE."
He just grinned. Well I suppose I did look somewhat foolish. But I persisted. "Mom - ee," periodically during the next hour, and right up until we went to the supermarket.
It was there, when Marianne left Mike with me, took a basket and swished around a corner out of sight, that I got the jolt.
Mike let go of my hand, ran up to where she'd disappeared and shouted up the aisle — "Marianne! MARIANNNNNNNE!"
"She'll be back in a minute," I said weakly, very embarrassed.
"Oh," he said. And he trotted back to me matter-of-factly and took my hand again.
Yes, time is still going on, inexorably. And God is so good, so good. Like in the spiritual, sometimes it causes me to tremble...
