jessica Wilkins

Nanas Journal

After Nana’s passing, our family just wanted to go about their lives and mourn in their own ways or just resume life as normal. Nana was old and everyone expected this to happen sooner or later; well, everyone other than Julia. Julia was the only grandchild and her and Nana were close, Julia looked at her more as a mother than a grandmother. Julia spent more time at her grandmother’s house than she did at home because her parents had to work all the time. As everyone else stayed home and went about their lives, Julia decided to go spend the last three days, before Nana’s house went up for auction, in her childhood home and to start collecting all her grandmother’s belongings. As Julia pulled down the long driveway that led to Nana’s Victorian style home, memories flooded her mind, memories of her and Nana playing in the yard and racing down the driveway. Nana use to be so active before she got sick, she and Julia did everything together and all her firsts were in that beautiful Victorian home. Julia parked the car and just sat there staring at the house, remembering how Nana use to take her to, what Nana called, her secret library. It was in that library that Julia learned to love books, reading and writing them. She decided then that the library is where she would start with packing; the books were not worth much nowadays, but they were like gold to her. The library was dark and felt cold, with every wall covered in books and journals from past family members. As she started to turn the lights on and open boxes to pack up all her favorite books, she stumbled across Nana’s typewriter and in it was a note addressed to Julia.