I set Eleanor’s things carefully on the passenger seat.
I sat for a moment with my hands on the wheel.
Then I drove home.
The ring caught the light once as I turned onto the main road — a small, quiet flash, there and gone.
I didn’t look away from the road.
But I felt it.
—
Some people love us long before we know they’re there.
Chapter 9: What She Gave Me
I went back to the hospice one last time.
Not as a volunteer.
Not officially.
I called ahead and the director, a woman named Patricia who had known Eleanor well, said of course, come whenever you like, and left it at that.
Eleanor’s room had been reassigned.
That was how it worked — it had to be.
But Patricia had saved a few things that had no next of kin to claim them.
A small stack of books.
The blue cardigan.
