Epilogue: Dawn

It's been nearly 10 years since I lost my husband and kids in that crash. I still think about them often, especially when I'm about to land at an airport. I can't get the picture out of my mind of Jon and the kids coming to pick me up at the airport and then getting killed by an out of control truck. Before I started to cry, I thought about how much my life has changed in the last 10 years. While I lost one family, I had gained another.

As the plane touched down, I started thinking about retirement. All of this traveling really drains the soul. I wondered if it wasn't time to turn over control of my company to someone else. Someone younger, who has the drive and energy to keep going. While I'm not as young as I used to be, I'm still in fairly good shape. Maybe it really is time for me to retire, before I get too old to enjoy it.

Waiting for me in the baggage claim area was Kevin and the twins. It seems like I leave for a few days and they grow another inch or two. Shortly after I spot them, they see me in the crowd and start racing toward me shouting, "Granny, granny!" I wished Kevin taught them to call me Aunt Dawn. I'm way too young to be a grandmother, I thought to myself with a grin.

Jon and Ashley nearly knocked me over when they reached me. Jon looks so much like his father it's uncanny, except for his eyes of course, while Ashley clearly has her mother's hair. Together, they latched onto my legs with the grip only a four year old can manage. Kevin strolled over to me and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Welcome home," he said, "Everyone missed you while you were gone."

On the drive home, Kevin briefed me on his latest project. Kevin is the only person who I will admit is smarter than me, and I'm glad he's heading up the research group at my company. With Kevin's ideas, our company has doubled its size and profits every year since he started working there.

I told Kevin that my meetings were a success. It looks like we'll be able to buy that company for ten percent less than I had thought. He said he thought that Amy would be really happy, since she was very worried that they might hold out for every last dollar.

Soon, Kevin pulled up in front of our house. I can't believe how many times I nearly sold it in those years after the crash. For a long time it was an empty reminder of what my life was like. Too many memories - good and bad. Now I'm glad I didn't. The twins make this place feel like a real home again.

I grabbed my laptop from the back, while Kevin grabbed my suitcase and shut the tailgate. The twins disappeared the moment we walked inside, while Kevin walked me to my room. He put my suitcase on the bed as I thought longingly of a relaxing bath in that antique claw foot tub.

Reading my mind, Kevin spoke. "Kim said dinner should be ready around 6:30, so you have time to get cleaned up from your trip." Carefully, Kevin closed the door to my bedroom on his way out.

A knock on the door woke me from my nap. It's easy to fall asleep in that comfy tub. I heard Jon say, "Mommy told me to tell you that dinner will be ready in ten minutes." Then he giggled and said, "Daddy said he'd eat your steak too if you were late."

Even though I knew Kevin wouldn't carry out his threat, I pulled myself out of the tub and dried myself off. I reached in my closet for a clean t-shirt at random. It was the Kokomo's shirt from the wet t-shirt contest seven years ago. I started to put it back, but then what the hell I thought. I grabbed a clean pair of jeans and slipped my feet into some sandals and followed the scent of grilled steaks to the dining room.

Everyone was sitting at the table already. Kevin sat next to Kim, while Jon sat across from his mother and Ashley sat across from her father. Amy was there too, sitting in her usual place at the end of the table. I sat down at the head of the table.

With a nod from her mother, Ashley said grace. While she was thanking God for our food, I thanked God for my new family - two daughters, a son-in-law, and two wonderful grandchildren.

For some reason, I couldn't go to sleep that night. I guess I had a lot on my mind. I thought back to that night that when Amy admitted that she was in love with Kevin and how she wanted to kill herself just like her mother did, shortly after her father divorced her mother. Amy was then forced to live with a father that really didn't want a child. That's more than any 14 year old should have to bare.

I guess that's why I decided to adopt Amy shortly after Nick was killed. I knew with some love Amy could go very far. While adopting a grownup doesn't make much of a difference, it's one way to tell someone you love them without sex. My faith in my new daughter was rewarded when Amy graduated near the top of her class and decided to go back school and earn her MBA.

For the last several years, she's been in charge of Digital Networking in everything but name. When I retire, she'll inherit the title too. Amy has the knack for running a business I never did.

On the other hand, Kim is a different matter. Even though I adopted Kim at the same time, Kim is far closer to me than I have ever admitted to anyone. I started college at 16 and breezed through most of my courses. Somewhere about the time I earned my first degree in engineering, I discovered boys. It wasn't long before I became pregnant.

I didn't want to give up my baby, but my older sister and her husband had just found out that they couldn't have kids. I knew that they would give her a better home than I ever could. I made sure over the years that my daughter had everything she needed. I always made sure her parents had money for those little extra things and had made sure that when she wanted to go to college, money wouldn't be a problem. I was very pleased when she decided to go to the same school I did and choose to follow in my footsteps and study engineering.

When I lost my family, I hid from the world. It was only when my sister and her husband died that I was able to get my act together. I knew that Kim needed me, so I was able to set aside my grief and focus on my first daughter.

However I'm a real coward as I still haven't been able to admit to Kim that I'm her birth mother. Her real mother is dead. However, Kim was happy to become my adopted daughter. One of these days I really must tell her...

Kim is nearly as brilliant as Kevin, and together they are the research department. While that department employs quite a few people, nearly all of the innovations that our company is famous for have come directly from either Kevin or Kim.

Kevin is the most amazing person I've ever met. Not only is a good father to the twins, but he's kind and caring and very supportive of both my adopted daughters. And the way he interacts with his children proves to me that Kevin is much more than just a father. He's their friend.