43

She tapped lightly on the door and her uncle opened it.

"Is that my Kaitlynn?" Her grandmother's husky voice greeted from the other side.

"Yes ma'am." Her uncle called back, quietly.

"Well, let her in, Kevin." She said, wearily, "I ain't seen my grandbaby in sixteen years."

She walked in quietly with Chad behind her and her grandmother smiled. Ada Quinn lie in the hospital bed, propped up on three pillows. Her once glowing, plump frame was now pale and thin. Her her long thick salt and pepper hair was now snow white and platted into two long thin, braids that hung from beneath her favorite pink bonnet. She was dressed in one of her own gowns and her bed was decked in a quilt she had made herself. On her bedside table was a picture of her grandfather who had passed long before she was born

"Same as always. Got my Chaddy boy right behind you." She sighed, and held out her hands to them. "Come to me." She looked at Chad. "Both of you."