Her leg was badly injured.
She spent months in hospital.
But she survived.
Grandma was sobbing now.
“I promised I’d come back.”
The woman shook her head.
“I remember.”
“I tried.”
“I know.”
“They wouldn’t let me.”
The mother squeezed her hand.
“Sweetheart, I was terrified you would come back.”
Grandma looked up.
The woman continued softly.
“I heard that ceiling cracking. I knew what was coming.”
She glanced toward Thomas.
“When you picked him up, I was so afraid you’d put him down and try to lift me again.”
Her voice trembled.
“I needed you to keep going.”
Grandma bowed her head.
“I left you there.”
“You took my boy out.”
The mother lifted Grandma’s chin.
“And because you did, I got to watch him grow up.”
Thomas stood beside them, wiping his eyes.
His mother smiled at him.
“I watched him finish school. I watched him get married. I held his babies.”
