The Heartbreak Factor - Part Four

Chapter Thirty-One.

Carefully walking down the path towards the far end of the cemetery, I carried Katy in my arms as she held onto three daisy flowers we’d picked just moments ago from the side of the road. I couldn’t help but feel guilty as we made our way through the cemetery as my stomach tied up in knots. When they buried my dad all those years ago, I promised that I’d go see him every week but for the last few years I had hardly visited his grave at all, let alone my grandparents’ graves either. Once we finally got to the location where they were, I readjusted Katy as I propped her against my hips and smiled at her as she looked around the cemetery. 

“Meet your granddad and great-grandparents,” I said, looking at the three headstones that stood glistening in the Spring sunshine that was breaking through the branches of the trees. 

I knew Katy didn’t understand what I meant as she looked at me in confusion and then back down at the graves that laid side-by-side. 

After placing Katy down on the grass beside the graves, I grabbed my bag off my shoulder and pulled out the blanket, laying it on the ground. Sitting down on the blanket, I watched Katy as she toddled right up to dad’s headstone and placed both her hands on it. 

“Katy, are you gonna put the flowers on each one?” I asked her, holding out the three daisies for her to take. 

She took the daisies off me and following my instructions, put one on each grave. 

“Come here,” I smiled to her. 

As she sat in between my legs, I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her tightly. 

“I pray you never have to come to anywhere like this, ever,” I whispered.

“Mummy!” she smiled, turning around to look at me. 

I softly began to hum a tune under my breath as I held onto Katy tightly. We stayed snuggling up on the blanket for a few more minutes as I continued to hum an unknown tune to her, swaying slightly as I watched the breeze rustling through the trees, creating a calming noise. I picked Katy up into my arms and held onto her with all my strength as I looked around. The breeze was chilling but it was nice being close to my dad and grandparents after so long. 

Katy continued crawling around the blanket as I laid out on the blanket and looked up into the trees that were shading us. 

No words were spoken and no sounds were made apart from the relaxing rustling from the leaves as the wind flew through them.  

*

One annoying thing about the coastal breeze is the way it makes your hair fly all over, regardless of how many times you try to tame it. In the end, I resorted to shoving my hair into two plaits - one either side of my head, looking like a four year old school girl. I carefully pushed Katy’s pushchair across the grassed area from where we had parked the car as George followed along behind, carrying Katy’s bag. 

“Sea!” Katy grinned, clapping her hands as she looked out of her pushchair at the horizon. 

Sitting down on the grass beside the pushchair, I smiled to my daughter as she admired the swooshing waves crashing on the shore below us. Her little face lit up when a seagull swooped from the sky and landed on the cliff edge just metres in front of us. 

“Birdie!”

“Are you sure you’ve got everything in there?” George laughed as he put Katy’s bag full of clothes and toys down on the grass beside the pushchair and sat down next to me. 

“Probably not,” I grinned. “But hey ho.”

George smiled at both Katy and I as we looked out at the sea.