Wars at Home

Epilogue

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ten Years Later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Felicity, bring this to your sister please." I held out the fresh cup of tea I'd made for Victoria.

"Is the baby coming, Mama?" She took the cup from my hand, looking excited.

"Yes, Sweetie," I smiled. "It'll be any time now."

Victoria was on the verge of giving birth to her first child. Making this mine and John's thirteenth grandchild. Felicity was ecstatic.

She had a special bond with Victoria. From the moment Victoria allowed herself to love her sister, they were practically inseparable. Ruby loved Felicity too, but her initial excitement didn't take very long to fade and after a while, many of the things she begged to do at first, became chores.

Victoria, though, was always willing to change a diaper or stay inside from playing to watch her sister. As Felicity got older, Victoria's sweet nature made her the first one she ran to for sympathy or to share something she found exciting.

Having been born so late in my life, Felicity always felt like her nieces and nephews were more of cousins. This time, she got to feel more like an aunt.

Victoria wasn't overjoyed about the situation though. She wanted to have her baby at the hospital near where she lived with her husband, but that was a few hours away and there was no way I was letting her out of this house when she was showing unmistakable signs of labor. Even if it was a month early.

I wasn't sure I trusted that hospital anyway. I'd given birth to five perfectly healthy babies at home and I trusted Doctor Collins. He'd been the one to deliver Felicity and would be much more attentive than hospital doctors would be with all of their patients to look after.

Victoria just hated being made to sit around while everyone fussed over her.

The entire family was visiting for Christmas, so the ranch, which normally seemed so spacious was just about bursting at the seams. And knowing that Victoria was about to have her baby, no one planned on going anywhere anytime soon.

Matthew, it turned out, had no interest in the ranch and so John planned on letting Thomas take over when it was time. Right now, Thomas worked with John and lived a few miles away with Marianne and their three children, Andrew, Amanda, and Samuel.

Emily, Mark, their twin girls, Katie and Lizzie, along with little Rose were close by too. As were Ruby and Aaron with their two small children, Abigail and Jack.

Matthew moved away with his family a few years ago for his job, but now with this Depression raging across the country, he'd been talking of moving back. From what I could tell, his job wasn't that stable. And even though things might get a little tight around here too, I know John would always be able to give him work. It was exciting to think of getting to see his family more often than just at Christmas. Thomas and Emily's girls always moped when Rebecca and Christina had to go home. And they adored Benjamin and now little Michael, who was celebrating his first Christmas.

James was the only one I was waiting on to settle down and get married. He'd gone on to pursue journalism like Andrew, and he was doing well, despite the Depression. I just wish he'd take an interest in more than work. I couldn't help being disappointed when he'd come home alone again this year without even news of a girl that had caught his eye.

But I suppose he was still young. I only hoped he would hurry up before I was too old to enjoy my grandchildren.

I'd come to accept aging much better than before. With all the joy I received from my grandchildren, I couldn't be upset about age. Besides, I still had Felicity to make me feel relatively young. But I was resigned to being a grandmother now, and I had to admit, it was a little fun to tease John about being an old man.