It has been ten years since Christi had me video-photo her daughter's wedding. Christi married a good old country boy, and they bought a new house to settle in. She and Jeff were raising her four-year-old granddaughter. My wife passed away from breast cancer, and Christi and Jeff helped me through some rough spots.
Now, three years later, Christi came home from work and found Jeff dead on the couch. She called my daughter, who was one of her best friends, and said, "What am I going to do? Jeff was my soul mate, my go-to, my everything."
My daughter called me and asked if I could give Christi a call. I said I would, and then thought "What do I say? What if she still remembers that wedding day? Will she want me near, or tell me to go to hell?"
Christi answered the phone, and I asked her if she needed a hand to hold. She said she was inundated with all the things that had to be closed out or changed for her as a single consignee. Since I had dealt with all this when my wife died, I told her I would drive over and help her out.
When I pulled into her driveway, Christi was sitting on the front stoop crying. Peanut's (her granddaughter's name) bus was due to drop her off, and she was upset because she hadn't got a single thing crossed off her list. I walked up the stoop and sat beside her, draping my arm over her shoulder and hugging her close to me. The tears flowed full force now, and soon our shirts were soaked. Mine was okay, but hers became almost see-through. As the waterworks stopped, she looked down and said, "I must look a mess now."
I lifted her chin and said to her, "Your beauty comes from the inside. Anybody who knows you can see that. And besides, when have we ever worried about clothes? As I remember, there have been some times when we all looked like something the cat drug through the mud."
Christi laughed and said, "You can always find a way to make me laugh. I needed that today with the week I've had. When Peanut gets here we can all go inside and I'll show you what I have to go through. Then I'll get Peanut a snack and we can go over some papers."
At that moment Peanut got off the bus and ran up the driveway. She hugged me and then took my hand to pull me inside. Peanut has always called me Granddad because that's what I was to her friends, my two granddaughters. She asked me if I was there to make her Mimi better. I told Peanut, "I am here as one of Mimi's friends, trying to help with Papa Jeff's passing and yes, I want Mimi to be better."
Christi looked at me misty-eyed and said, "How can you be such a ray of sunshine to us? You went through this not too long ago."
I told her, "There will probably be tears flowing from everyone because Jeff was just such a great guy. But remember, you have a village surrounding you with love. I just feel privileged to be counted as a small part of that village. Now, let's get those tears dried up and see what has been done and what still needs to be taken care of. Where is this mountain of papers?"
Christi wiped her hands across her face and led me to their office area. She pointed a finger at a box in the corner and said, "That is what I pulled from the file cabinet. I found three insurance policies, one from work and two from groups. All his pay stubs, all our active accounts, and anything else that may need to be looked at."
I said, "That's a good start. The first item, how many copies of the death certificate have you requested? Every one of these will need an original seal, not just a copy. I found that out getting my affairs in order. A good starting number would be twenty-five, and we can always get more. When we get them we can file claims to the insurers, and then get all credit in your name only. Do you have a power of attorney, a will, or joint survivorship that we can go on? I know, it seems like a lot, but we can get you through it."
I turned as I heard a thump, and saw Christi collapsed on the floor sobbing uncontrollably. I checked that she had not hit her head, then cradled her in my arms and rocked her, trying to calm her down. I picked her off the floor and carried her into the great room, intending to lay her on a couch. Her arms locked around my neck, keeping me from letting her go. So I sat on the couch and held her tight. I felt her breasts against my chest, and my mind went back to that wedding years ago. I slapped my face to clear my mind and Christi looked at me and said, "Maybe it was not a good idea to do this."
