The Brown Bear

Going through her grandmother's belongings weighed heavily on her heart. Penny spotted George, a brown bear puppet, sitting in her grandmother's rocking chair. She cried. Holding it to her chest, for as long as she could remember, memories of her grandmother, or mom-mom as she called her, holding George up to the FaceTime screen and pretending the three of them were having a conversation. Penny decided she would keep George. He even smelled like her with a soft, vanilla scent.

Her mom-mom died suddenly, she just sat at her desk, closed her eyes and never woke up. When she didn’t show up for work, her coworkers tried to call her, but she never responded. They called the police when they realized her Jeep was parked in front of her house.

Penny’s mom and dad interrupted Penny’s thoughts, “we’re hungry, do you want to get some lunch?” Penny replied, “I’m not hungry, can I stay here and look at more stuff?” Her parents nodded and said they would bring something back for her.

Penny slid to the floor and put her hand into George, she felt closest to her grandmother when they played their bear game together. Her hand wouldn’t go all the way into bear, her fingers grappled with something hard, it felt like a book. She grabbed it and pulled it out of the bear. Penny was holding a small book. The cover looked like her dress shoes, shiny and black. When Penny opened it, she noticed it had worn, lined pages as though they had been touched often. She tried to read her grandmother's neat cursive handwriting. Penny’s school only just started to teach cursive handwriting in the fifth grade. But she thought if she took her time, she would be able to decipher the letters and figure out what mom-mom wrote. With each paragraph was a drawing, so that would help. The first drawing was a small bear. She figured it was George. the first page said, “I Loved her too P.” that is what her grandmother called her sometimes. “Mom-mom hasn't gone very far, she still wants to play one more game with us.”

Penny turned the page of the little black book and saw a picture of what looked like a cookie. A sugar cookie, mom-mom always made them for me and my family, all I had to do was ask, and a box would show up within a week. Next to the picture mom-mom wrote “Tag, you’re it!” “It’s your turn to make cookies for your sister, mom and dad! Aunt Melissa loves the Surprise Bundle cookies with the Hershey kiss in them.” “Here are all the recipes you will need. But, they won’t taste the same without that one secret ingredient, LOVE”

With tears and her heavy heart, Penny turned all the pages of the recipes until she found another picture. It was a picture of a flower. Mom-mom loved to garden, Penny said to herself. She would bring the iPad outside and show me all of her pretty flowers. She sent me flower bulbs to plant in my garden each spring. Penny thought of the gardening gloves and tools she got as a gift from her a couple of years ago.

In mom-mom’s cursive handwriting Penny read:

Looking out my window I see pink, purple and yellow.

“Pink flowers, a Life full of happiness and love. Remember me my Penny when you see pink flowers.”

“Purple flowers are yours, full of successes yet to come, and the strength and admiration you have within you. You do see the good in everything, never stop P.”

“Yellow flowers are your sister’s. Full of joy and happiness. She is too young to understand the sadness you feel at this moment.” “If you look closely, there is our fairy keeping watch over my garden. Take her with you and find her a home.”

Penny jumped up and ran outside to the flower pot mom-mom always put a garden fairy in with a little fairy house. For a moment, Penny forgot her sadness for that moment, and plucked the fairy off the soft dirt and held her to her heart. This was a treasure, one that Penny will keep forever.

Penny sat down on the cushioned chair outside feeling the warmth of the Montana sun on her face. The stillness in the air was so quiet she could hear the bees buzzing over the flowers. She could feel her grandmother sitting next to her, for a moment she felt at peace. She could hear her grandmother saying “I love you to the moon and back”. She even had a music box her mom-mom gave her with those words engraved in it.

Penny looked down at the black book and saw a water drop, she looked up and saw the sky was crying. Rain fell gently, even though the sun was shining. Penny went into the house and sat down on the soft, navy blue sofa, her feet curled under her, watching the soft rainfall. She imagined her grandmother sitting in the same spot not so long ago. With that thought, she drifted off to sleep.

The sound of her dad’s voice calling her outside awakened Penny from her quick nap. The rain had stopped falling, and the air smelled fresh as she walked to her dad. He said, “Penny, look up”. Penny looked up at the sky and saw a beautiful rainbow stretching over the horizon. She smiled and said to her dad, “That is so cool!“

“What’s this?” Penny’s dad bent down and picked up what looked like a gold coin. The inscription said “I’ll love you to the moon and back” Penny smiled and looking up at the rainbow said “I know she will.”