Sugarpill

1-The Funeral

The Funeral

             We watched, as they lowered her casket into the ground. I looked to my mother, who stood there with her sunglasses on, as a tear leaked from underneath. I tried to hold it all in as Meridian silently sobbed. Old Ms. Haddie Mae Peyton was like a second mother to us all...I never understood why God had to take her. She never did anything to anyone, except try to love them. No one had a grudge- an axe to bear, against Ms. Haddie…and if they did, she usually made peace with them by giving them some of her delicious chocolate chip cookies. I looked out the corner of my eye, noticing my dad walking up to us, while the reverend droned on with his memorial. I hated funerals…seemed like not too long ago- about a year or so, we had attended Grandma Grace’s funeral. She was my mother’s mom, and after that, Dad had taken a leave of absence from his job, so that we could console Mom. Ms. Haddie had come over a couple of days and with her help, Mom was back with us within a couple of months. Ms. Haddie was just that type of lady…she could always turn a bad situation into a good thing. I was gonna miss her….I was gonna miss her cookies, and her cooking too.

              Like I said, I never understood why God had to take her. Just last year we found out that Ms. Haddie had diabetes, and had to get insulin shots- around the same time that she began consoling Mom. She never did make her appointments, as well as take her shots at the prescribed times…then in the brutal winter, when she was trying to make it to the city bus, she fell and twisted her leg bad. The hospital put her leg in a brace, but beknownst to all- that, was the beginning of the end for poor Ms. Haddie. Within a month, her leg condition had gotten worse, and when the doctors at the military hospital finally took a look at her leg, the bone hadn’t broke cleanly, but splintered, and did all sorts of damage, causing it to become infected. Amputation was the only answer…I’m not sure whether it was at the idea of the solution, or was it because her body had grown very weary and tired, but hours after surgery- Ms. Haddie died, from clotting, and other complications. That loss was another blow to my mother, because Ms. Haddie had been a family friend of hers, and our caretaker for most of Meridian and my life. We had heard the news, upon coming home from college.

              I looked across, to the other side of the casket…there she stood- dressed in black, with a lace veil over her face to hide her emotions, her sorrow, her tears…but I could see through it. Jassandra Mills, Ms. Haddie’s granddaughter, had also known her as the closest thing to a mother- because Jassandra’s real mother had abandoned them- her and her younger brother, Kendryk, when they were young…Kendryk was three years younger, and Jassandra, Meridian and I were about the same age. When Ms. Haddie used to come over in the summer, she would bring them over, and we’d all play together…then somewhere along the line, things that didn’t matter before, started to matter- status, class, race, and popularity. Even though Ms. Haddie had lived off Forest and Hilltop, she sent Jassandra and Kendryk to school in the nicer neighborhood, because A) she was a widow of a Navy officer, so the district wouldn’t give her any slack, and B) my mother had arranged it so Ms. Haddie wouldn’t have to worry about them.

              When we graduated, Kendryk was the only one left in school. I barely saw Jassandra anymore, and Meridian had long separated from us, becoming part of the plastic skanks’ pop club. I mean, yeah our Dad was a high ranked Navy official and we lived well to do, but I was never one to feign being a snob, when I was raised different. But Meridian bought into the whole “status has its privileges” thing and walked around like she was Ms. Shit. And then we all went to college-I went to the Naval Academy, and Meridian went to Johns Hopkins University to study at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Jassandra had gone to Anne Arundel Community College, and started studying arts- painting, poetry, writing, and some journalism. This was my first time seeing her since high school…