Chapter 24

"Tommy, Dad just called. My grandfather died."

I collapsed on the couch and pulled her to me.

"Oh, no, not Hank!" We'd just seen them. How could he be dead? "Is Joan all right?"

"No, Tommy, it's not Hank, it's Dad's father, Robert."

"Oh, him." I thought back to our first conversation about grandparents and how Beth had said Chuck and his dad fell out over careers. Beth hadn't even met the man.

"What did your dad say?"

"He asked if I would go with them and I said I'd call him back. Tommy, I just don't know if I want to go or not. Am I a horrible person because I can't build up a lot of sympathy for a man I've never met?"

"No, I don't think so. Why should you care about someone who basically cut off your family? I don't think you should feel any more for him than you would for any stranger you heard about. I mean, he was your grandfather, but in his case that's nothing more than genetics as far as I can see."

"I suppose you're right, it just seem spooky to hear my grandfather died and I don't feel anything.

"Anyway, the funeral is Saturday in Ohio and Mom and Dad want me to go. Umm, Tommy, would, I mean could..."

"Beth, if you want me to go with you, of course I will."

"Oh, Tommy, thank you! I think it would only take the weekend. We'll leave on Friday and get back Monday. Will that be a problem?"

"No. The show's over and I don't have anything on the schedule."

"I hate to ask you to do this, but I don't think I could do it on my own," she said, pulling me into a tight hug.

It never fails, the next day Greg caught me as I got out of my Jeep.

"Tommy, can you help us this weekend? The new place is done and we're moving."

"Oh, Greg. If it was any other time..." I went on to tell him about the call Beth had received.

"Oh, geez, Tommy, I'm sorry to hear that. Hey, don't worry about the move. Dad promised to help and Cindy's folks will give us a hand too."

"I still wish we were going to be here. I'm sorry."

"Hey, family takes precedence. You don't have to explain anything. I know how close Beth was to her grandfather."

"Greg, I'm not talking about Hank. It's Robert, Chuck's dad, who died."

"Robert? I don't remember either of you mentioning him."

"Well, it's a long story..."

Friday morning found us at the airport going through security. I'd packed light—only one camera and a couple of lenses.

We arrived in Dayton Friday afternoon after an uneventful trip, other than a mad dash through O'Hare airport to catch our connecting flight.

Chuck had reserved a rental car and it wasn't too long before we were on our way—Chuck driving and Bev navigating. What does it mean when you have to get a map to find the house your parents have lived in since the year after you left for college?

Martha, Chuck's mother, greeted us with tears in her eyes when she saw us at the door. Well, when she saw Chuck, Bev, and Beth anyway. I'm sure she didn't know me from Adam.

"Son," she whispered and I thought she was going to collapse.

Chuck pulled her into an embrace. "Mom, oh, Mom," was all he could get out.

Eventually the pair came back to Earth. As Martha surveyed the three of us she looked at Beth's mom.

"Beverly, thank you so much for all the letters and pictures. Robert grumbled every time I got one, but he never told me to stop reading them."

Stop your wife from reading mail from her daughter-in-law? What kind of a tyrant had Chuck's father been, and what mother would have meekly accepted such an order? I remembered the first time Beth told me of the estrangement between Chuck and his father, but I don't think it really sank in until this moment. The thought of cutting off all contact with your only son over his choice of career was incomprehensible to me.

When she turned to my lady her eyes overflowed and she started shaking at seeing her only grandchild in person for the first time.

"Oh, my God, Bethany!" she exclaimed, pulling her into a hug, tears running down both their faces. I glanced at Chuck and could see his eyes were shining, too.

I wasn't sure if Martha had been told I was coming, or if she even knew about me. I didn't have to wait long to find out.

"And you've got to be Thomas," she said as she looked me over. Why did I feel like an Army recruit being inspected by a drill sergeant? And Thomas? Where did that come from?

"Come in, come in! We've got so much to talk about!"

It was interesting as a bystander to watch Chuck and his mother get to know each other again. Since Chuck made his decision to pursue a career in engineering rather than follow his physician father into medicine the separation enforced by his father's attitude had made strangers of family. Maybe it was because my family was so close that I had a hard time understanding how a situation like this could have gone on for so many years.

As the conversation continued I found myself comparing the quiet, mousy Martha to Beth's other grandmother, Joan, and I realized I was seeing the two Beths I'd come to know—the shy girl I first met versus the self-assured, outgoing lady I lived with now. Heredity? Coincidence? Who knows?

It was later in the evening when Beth's grandmother got around to THE subject.

"Bethany, I understand you and Thomas are living in the same house? Is that true?"

I knew this subject would come up sooner or later and had been trying to prepare for it. Not that that made it any easier when it did.

"Yes, it is. Tommy and I have shared half the duplex since we started school."

"I surmise from your answer that means he sleeps with you, also?"

"Um, yes, he does."

"And I suppose you plan to do that while you're here?"

Well, THAT put the eight hundred pound gorilla right in the middle of the family reunion.

I could see the back of Beth's neck turning red—not from embarrassment, but suppressed rage that her grandmother would even question her—our—living arrangements.

"Yes, we do."

"I'll not say you can't share a room, but I do have to tell you I'm not comfortable with the idea."

Chuck tried to defuse the situation.

"Mother, Tommy is the best thing that's happened to Beth in a long time. It took us a while to accept the situation, but I'll tell you Bev and I have no problem with their living arrangement."

Chuck and Bev weren't comfortable with our "arrangement" at first? They certainly covered it well. I'd always been surprised at how easily they seemed to accept the idea that their daughter and I were—how had Bev put it during one of our conversations?-- "Humping like bunnies?"

"Well, I suppose if your parents have accepted your arrangement, I will just have to accept it also."

I have to admit it seemed a bit strange crawling in with my lady that night.

Beth snuggled up to me.

"It really feels funny, knowing my grandmother is just down the hall. Is it okay if we just cuddle tonight?"

"Well ... I suppose. I'd hate to scare her with my Tarzan yell."

NOTE TO SELF: Even nude and in Ohio my lady's elbow is a potent weapon.

The morning of the funeral Chuck looked uncomfortable at the idea of meeting a bunch of strangers whose opinions of him would have been colored by his father's bias. I didn't envy him at all and was determined to stay in the background as much as I could.

Not surprisingly, most of those who attended were doctors, nurses, or other medical people and the conversations I heard were, for the most part, medically oriented.

What was surprising was the number of Robert's friends who seemed to have no aversion to us non-medical types and went out of their way to make us feel comfortable. After what Beth had said about her grandfather, and a few side comments from her folks during the time we'd known each other, I guess I was expecting a lot of cold shoulders and snide remarks but, with the exception of a couple of stuck-up oafs, everyone treated us as equals.

I have to admit I had little experience with funerals. I mean, I effectively had known none of my grandparents, and other than for a couple of old neighbors, I'd never been to one before. Mom described the first time they'd dragged me to one and told me that, when I saw what they were going to do to our neighbor, Mr. Jameson, I ran back to the car, screaming. I mean, he'd always been nice to me, and they were going to stick him in a hole in the ground and cover him up?!

Church itself was interesting, in a cultural sort of way. The church Beth's grandparents attended was a Protestant one that was big on pomp and pageantry. The priest/minister/pastor wore a hat that had to be a foot tall—not that anyone could have missed him with the fancy robe he wore. It didn't help that I sat with the family—right in the front row of the church where everyone could stare at me—or so it felt. I don't remember much about the ceremony, other than it was long, with lots of unfamiliar music and too many people talking about what a great guy Robert Jones was. I realized I'd only heard one side of the story, but a lot of it still sounded like a bunch of politicians vying to outdo each other.

After the funeral and the mandatory trip to the cemetery we drove back to the church for the luncheon. Which gave everyone a chance to meet us on a more individual basis. Me? I felt like a specimen under a microscope. It was a little uncomfortable trying to explain just who I was. I wasn't family and had never known Robert, so why was I there? I heard Bev describe me as Beth's fiancé and that got me thinking about just what our relationship was—especially when the mention of fiancé had many looking at Beth's left hand—her bare left hand.

One distinguished-looking older gentleman was talking to Beth and me after the ceremony.

"You know, I have a feeling that even if Robert had convinced your father to become a doctor he would have ended up working for a medical device manufacturer—Medtronics or one of the other companies along those lines. Charles just wasn't cut out to be a hands-on physician.

"I've know the family since Charles was a boy and he was always building something. Either that, or taking it apart to see how it worked. But Robert just couldn't see it, or wasn't able to accept the idea that his son wouldn't follow in his footsteps. It's really a shame that Robert's intransigence caused such a rift in the family. I know it hurt Martha immensely when Charles announced he was moving to attend school for a degree Robert scornfully referred to as nothing more than a license to be a mechanic. Charles even tried to reach his father by describing all the medical equipment that had been developed by 'mechanics' such as he was planning to become and how much easier it made his father's job, but Robert would have none of it."

Eventually the ordeal was over and we drove back to the house.

Chuck's mother seemed to be in a daze as she wandered around the house, stopping to pick up one thing or another almost as if she was seeing it for the first time. She just looked lost to me, and I wondered what it must be like to be alone in the house she had shared for so many years.

It didn't take long before Bev had had enough.

"Martha, have you given any thought to what you're going to do now ... I mean with the house and everything?"

"I honestly don't know. It seems foolish to stay in this huge house by myself, but I don't know if I'm prepared to go through everything involved with selling this place then having to pack everything up and find a new home."