Chapter 22 A Hero’s Welcome
Missy began to nod asleep when she heard Emma slightly groan and again awaken from her slumber. Missy pulled the chair even closer as Emma- began to talk in the low gasping voice. Missy wanted to desperately hang onto every word as she was learning more tonight then she had in her more then 30 years on earth.
Granny spoke of how happy she was when Phillip returned from the war. He was even more handsome and dashing then she remembered when he left. She remembered cooking so much food for he and some of the others who came back with him. She yearned to hear his voice and hear his laughter. She could almost smell his scent. For the first time in 4 years her stomach was not in knots and her heart was at peace. She did not know what to expect going forward but Phillip was back home. She felt herself blessed as there were others in her neighborhood who had received the terrible news that they would never every see their husband or brother again.
Missy looked lovingly at her grandmother as she could see a slight gleam in her eyes as she spoke of Phillip. Emma continued to talk about her time with Phillip who had been able to go back to his same job driving trucks before he left for the army. Things were finally back to normal but not for long.
The gleam slowly left the eyes of Emma as she began to remember memories that she had longed tried to forget. While she tried to forget them, she was constantly reminded of them every day that she saw Missy.
Emma had been a single mom for her daughter except for the years that Phillip had been there. While Phillip had tried to be a good father, her daughter had refused to accept him as a father. She had often asked Emma about her real father but Emma refused to answer her questions directly. In fact Emma has shared little about her family in Riverside since Emma had refused to go back to Riverside. While she understood the decision her father made, she had never forgiven him. Nor had she forgiven her mother who she felt could have talked to her father. She had basically written off her time in Riverside as her past never to be re-lived. So Emma was never able to share her family or early memories with her daughter. Her daughter never knew her real father.
While Emma loved her daughter she had never been able to have a very close relationship with her. There became an even greater gap between them as her daughter entered high school. Her daughter began to become more and more independent of Emma until which time that Emma actually saw her daughter less and less. There were days when Emma only saw her at breakfast for she came home later and later at night.
It was May 1950 when Emma’s daughter graduated from high school that she came home and announced to Emma and Phillip that she was moving in with her boyfriend. Emma had never met him but she had heard talk that he was bad news. She tried to talk to her daughter but as usual they only argued before she slammed the door as she left the house.