Dreams, Memories & Keys

Chapter 57 - Moving On

One year later ...

It was the Monday after Thanksgiving 2018. Julie, Alan, Matt, Zackary, and Jessie stood closest to the marker that was about to be uncovered, while many other family members – their wives, husbands, children and grandchildren - stood around them. Though Greg and Susan had been buried in a religiously neutral cemetery, the Jewish custom of waiting a year to place a headstone above the grave had been followed, which led to the not-so-tiny gathering that was assembled here on this day. And so, they stood with heads bowed as Jake, the rabbi in the family, said the required prayer of blessing and the marker was uncovered. The service was concluded and most of the other attendees wandered away.

"I can't believe it's been a year," Julie murmured as she stood beside the grave of her father with her brother's arm wrapped around her shoulder.

Both were older now. Julie had become a grandparent again herself in the past year when Jake's second child, a boy they named Micah, was born over the summer. Aaron and Rita were expecting their second sometime in the coming year. As had become traditional in their family, the fact had been announced during the Thanksgiving holiday that year. All the other children in the family were older too. Olivia, who was the oldest, was now a teenager. Noah and LeeAnn weren't far behind and all of them regularly talked about their dreams, suggesting Greg and Susan's legacy was living on. Through the dreams, memories and keys they all now knew how to use, the family's future looked bright indeed. All of this was evidence perhaps that the family as a whole had moved on.

And yet for Julie and Alan, the loss of their father had been hard. For Julie in particular it was difficult to believe it had been a whole year since her father and his soulmate went home.

"I can," Alan said. "With all that has happened and how busy everyone has been, it went by so fast. Who could have known? Dad surely didn't."

"Mom didn't either," Matt said as they stood together in the California coastal gloom of early morning. Even he showed evidence of beginning to age; although his hair was not yet streaked with gray, and his face lost the youthful glow a year ago. "They were sure the year would go so slow."

"That's because they were never certain who would die first," Zack told them. "They never wanted the other to be alone. They talked to Jessie and I a lot about that right after Greg made the Tropical Dream movie, and then again last year, after Mom started having headaches again."

"They'd already done it too many times," Alan agreed. "We watched that old movie again recently with the kids to try to help them understand. Still, it is odd. Even though Dad and Susan died of natural causes, it happened so close together. It's like Dad didn't want to stick around once he saw Susan buried, after he was certain the service was appropriate. He died the same day as her funeral, as soon as it was done."

"He didn't want to be here without Mama," Jessie told them seriously. Although she was by far the youngest of Greg or Susan's children who were there, in some ways they all reflected, she'd known their parents longest. Certainly, through more lifetimes than the rest of them. The movie Greg made so many years ago, and the memories they shared with everyone in family, made that much clear to them all.

"Papa's done that too many times before. He wanted to go with her," Jessie went on.

"And he did," Zack pointed out. "Mom died of a stroke, and Greg died of a heart attack three days after that. I don't know how he did that."

"Maybe it wasn't a heart attack," Julie suggested. "Maybe Dad died of a broken heart. Susan was his Camelot, you know? His soulmate."

But Jessie shook her head. "No Julie. He didn't. He just gave himself up to the Lord and followed. "