Page 46 of Over the Verdant Hills
“Yeah. I can definitely tell you the things that I’ve been going through have changed me. I was much more interested in being with my grandma. Although it kind of makes you wonder why God ripped her away from me just as I was interested in getting to know her again.”
“That’s just another pain that will shape you and mold you into somebody that is better than the person you used to be.”
“I guess I’ll take your word for that.”
“You can. I’m sure of it.”
“I’m sorry I’m probably not going to be a very good friend. I…have a lot going on. I don’t know if you know that Grandma’s house is in shambles, because I started painting the outside, and Josiah’s ripped the kitchen apart to put in new cabinets and redo it, and everything is scattered everywhere. And… I don’t know. I’ll probably be depressed after my kids leave.”
“It’s okay. I’ve been depressed before. And I think the best remedy for depression is to get out and hang out with someone fun. That would be me,” Grace said, winking, as though she knew she was being a little bit goofy.
“I see. You are the remedy for my depression. Gotcha.”
“Seriously. I really would like to spend time with you this summer. Are you back to stay?”
“I’m not sure. I…probably will need a job. I have to go through what Grandma did with her will. But she told me she left me the farm and farmhouse and enough money to finish fixing it up. But all of her other money was divided amongst all of her other grandchildren. I have a subscription website that makes me a couple hundred dollars a month, but that’s not going to be enough to keep me going. I do get some money from my ex-husband for the kids, and so far, it’s been dependable. I suppose I should just assume that he’s going to do what he says, but given my experience…”
“Totally understand. Even if he does do what he says he’s going to do with child support, it’s so hard to shove aside the fact that he didn’t do what he said he was going to do with his marriage vows.”
“Exactly.” She felt like Grace really understood her. Especially when it came to her ex. “You didn’t have children?”
“I wanted them so badly, but my ex said no. I’m so glad he did. Otherwise, it would make it so much harder.”
Claire could agree enthusiastically with that. “Absolutely. It’s hard enough for you to go through your husband ditching you like yesterday’s trash, but to watch your children suffer—it’s so, so hard. And then it’s really hard to encourage your kids to be kind to him and like him and not to tell them all the bad things that he’s ever done to you. I wanted to turn them against him, but I knew that wasn’t the right thing to do. It was…exceptionally difficult and sometimes still is.”
“I can only imagine. God was good to me there. But on the other hand, Trevor and I have already talked about it, and we want to have children. I think we’re going to try for children right away.”
“Are you getting married soon?”
“Yeah. Our parents just got married not that long ago, and we kind of wanted to give them their own honeymoon time. But actually, we were talking about in the next couple of weeks just going to the preacher and having our parents as witnesses. We thought we might have a get-together after church on Sunday to celebrate. Kind of like a wedding reception, only low-key and no stress.”
“I love the idea of no stress.” She had to admit that the idea of notstressing was a good one. And she was glad that the last things that her grandmother had talked to her about were some of the ways that she could keep from stressing—by being humble, by not having high expectations of what everyone else should do and be, by not being offended and not allowing herself to be offended over anything, by determining beforehand that she wasn’t going to take anything personally.
“I better get back. My children are coming home from school, and they don’t know about Grandma yet. Not unless someone on the bus told them.”
“I hope no one did. I do know that word has gotten around. If I know, and you and I haven’t talked in ages, then a lot of people know.”
“Well, hopefully they’re going to allow me to tell them. But I guess if not, I’ll handle that too.”
“I think we find, as we live, that we can handle a lot more than we thought we could. And that Jesus is with us every step of the way.”
“Amen.” They stood together and embraced.
“Thanks again for meeting me.”
“I really am sorry about what I did in high school and for not responding to your messages now too. We could have talked weeks ago if I had responded and answered you.”
“God’s timing.” Grace smiled, and it was obvious to Claire that there were no hard feelings. She did truly appreciate that.
“Let’s stay in touch,” Grace said as she put her arm through Claire’s, and they walked down the path together.
“Absolutely.” And she had every intention of keeping her word.
Chapter Nineteen
Josiah looked up as the front door opened. He wanted to get the house finished for Claire. He hated that it was such a mess while she was going through such a hard time. He couldn’t imagine that the state of the house made things any easier for her. But in order to finish the kitchen, it was going to have to get worse before it got better, since he would have to take everything out in order to put things in. And it was going to take a little while, especially with the tile backsplash behind the counter and the fact that all the walls needed to be painted.
“We’re home,” Claire said, coming into the kitchen. She looked like she’d had quite a day, which of course he knew she had. But she had a certain glow about her, and he suspected that her talk with Grace had gone very well.
