Reminisce

  2 years. It’s been 2 years since she died. Since my grandma died. I felt tears slip from my face. I wiped them away as fast as I could. It has been two years and yet I still haven’t moved on.

  I was an only child, and my parents were either working or hanging out with their friends. I didn’t really know my grandpa because he died, from a sickness, when I was two years old. But, it was my grandma I knew well. My grandma, she loved gardening. She was always outside, gardening. And when she wasn’t gardening, she would be spending her time with me.

  She also always wore this locket. If you saw her in the garden working, you would see it. If you saw her in the house, it was there. If you saw her in her bed sleeping, the locket would be there around her neck. It was beautiful. It was shaped as a circle, had a diamond quartz in the center of it, and around the diamond, tiny pearls surrounding it. 

  It had a picture of my grandpa in it. The picture was old. My grandma loved my grandpa, and it shattered her heart to pieces when he passed away. However, the other side was blank. I would think that a picture of my mom would be on the other side, but it wasn’t. I asked her one day, why that was so, but she left the question unanswered. And it still remains unanswered to this day.

  The day I was going to graduate from high school, and go to college, was the day I figured out my grandma had stage three cancer. So, instead of attending my graduation, I was crying by my unconscious grandmother, hoping she will survive it. But, she didn’t. 

  I remember when I was 6 years old, I was crying because my mom and dad were either working or hanging out with their friends or coworkers. My grandma was there for me though. She was always there for me. She told me on the day I was crying, “Just remember, Millie, I will always be there for you, ok?” she said it with a warm smile. My favorite smile.

  A lot has happened since my grandma passed away. After high school, I decided I should change my major for college, and because of that, the college I attend to is almost three thousand miles away from my home, and my boyfriend cheated on me. Yes, my sorry for an excuse of a boyfriend cheated on me.

   This is one of the times where girls would go to their loved ones to cry on or talk to, right? But me, I have no one. Absolutely no one. My parents? Well, my dad is on a business trip in Europe, while my mom is with her friends who knows where! “Where are you now grandma? Where are you!” I thought. Even more tears escaped my eyes. I wiped them again.

  In the spur of the moment, I decided to go back home. The one almost three thousand miles from my college. So, I left a note on top of the desk in my dorm saying, “I’ll be gone for a few days,” (so my roommate won’t worry), went outside the dormitories, went to the school parking lot, went inside my Land Rover, and drove there.

                       ....... 

  I turned the street and saw the house. The house I grew up in. The first thing I noticed about the house is the three year old plant my grandma planted three years ago. Surprisingly, it was still alive and healthy. I parked my car in the driveway of my house, saw a water bottle in my car, took it, and watered the plant with the water bottle. Then, I went to the front door, looked under the welcome mat, hoping the spare key is still there, and the spare key was still there. I let out a sigh of relief. I got it, and opened the house. 

  When I entered the house, I still smelled the same old smell I remember from years ago. A vanilla scent with a hint of lemon. I went up the stairs to my old room. The room was so empty, except for the empty boxes and the lone queen sized bed in the middle of the room. I went on the bed.

  I haven’t changed my clothes for two days because it took me forty three hours and twenty nine minutes to drive here. So, I decided to change my clothes. That is when I realized I didn’t bring any clothes. Uhhhhh, why did I come here. Dang it me and my impulsive decisions.

  I decided to go up the attic to see if there was extra clothes I left behind years ago to change into. I went in the attic and found a lot of boxes. There were big boxes and small boxes. I saw a big box that was taped. It had the word “clothes” written on it with sharpie. I found scissors, cut the tape, and I opened it. Instead of finding a tee and jeans, I found old vintage clothes. There were dresses, tops, coats, pants, you name it. 

  There was one piece of clothing that stood out of the rest in my eyes. It was a jacket I gave to my grandma on her birthday. The jacket had botched lapels and a spread collar. It also had on seam pockets. I felt tears trying to escape the tips of my eyes, but I forced them back in. “I will not cry,” I said myself, “I will not cry.” I repeated.

  While I put my grandma’s jacket that I gave to her away, something fell out of the jacket’s pocket. It was my grandma’s locket. I picked it up and opened it. When I saw what was in it, the tears in my eyes fell out. There was a new picture that replaced that empty space. It was a picture of me.