Evermore, Nevermore Forget Me Not

Bittersweet Memories

Setting: 1994; Sheldon is now studying abroad in Germany, Georgie was married to his first wife (Taylor), Missy is starting high school, and George recently died...

     Georgie drives home from work and helping his mother pack up His father's things and getting Missy from school, he just had one last stop to make on the way. It was the same stop he made every day after work and helping his mom with his sister, and each time he made it, it never got any easier. He parks his truck, grabs the small bouquet from the passengers seat and hops the fence, shining a flashlight as he walks down the many endless rows until he finally finds the row he's looking for and stops right in front of a stone. He places the flowers down in front of it as he fell to his knees and just sat there starring at the engraving that stares back at him...

Taylor J. Cooper
Beloved daughter, wife, & friend
June 13, 1976-June 19, 1994
'Kill 'em with kindness; cure 'em with laughter, & always with a smile.'

     They had only been married six months before she finally passed away; His father died short after their wedding, and his younger brother left for Germany just before then. His mother is a grieving mess, while his younger sister channels her grief into the form of being reckless, leaving almost all of the responsibilities on his shoulders. He has to work three jobs, and work extra hours just to help pay for: the hospital bill from Galveston, Sheldon's education, and other things. With all the work and time he put into handling everything, he had no time to go to college himself, and little time to be with Taylor in her last few weeks alive. They might've only been married half a year, but to him, it felt like much longer than that; to him, it felt like years...

"I'm back again," he whisper to the grave, "I brought yer favorite flowers this time."

     He had learned everything about that girl before she died, and he wrote it all down so he wouldn't ever forget a single word she told him. Her cooking was almost as good as his MeeMaw's, and she would go on and on about what they'd name the kids, doing it with a bright smile and warm laugh-knowing full well it would never actually come to pass, but still letting her imagination run wild. Each day when he'd come visit her grave, he'd bring something small to put on it: flowers, her favorite candies etc. It has only been a month since she passed away, and he hasn't failed to visit her once since she died; he had argued with his in laws about whether to bury her or cremate her-long story short, he lost the fight to have her cremated...

"Sorry I'm so late," he tells the stone as his fingers trace over the engraved letters that is her name, "work ran longer than I expected."

"..." a light breeze goes by

"I know, I know," he chuckles as if she had spoken to him, "I gotta stop making excuses," he sighs out, "lord, I miss yer laugh..."

"..." the wind blow a little harder, as if talking to him again

"Huh," he sighs as he closes his eyes and just breaths in the light breeze that's blowing through his hair, "I know I always say this," he says as he finally stands up again, "but I promise that'll try ta be 'ere before closing tomorrow."

He brushes off his pants from sitting on the grassy ground, and slowly starts to make his way back to his truck, not uttering a word a long the way. He gets into his truck and drives his way home to the apartment that he had shared with Taylor, thinking about the first time they met. It was his senior year, and she was a transfer student that had just moved to Texas from their neighboring state of Oklahoma with her parents for some reason or another. It was her first day of her junior at school and almost everyone was being mean to her because she was in a wheel chair and wore a bandanna around her head. They were purposely throwing her books on the floors, keeping them out of reach, locking the handicap bathroom stall, crashing her and her chair into walls and sticking things in the wheels to stop them from moving, and make her late to class and all sorts of other things.