That evening, the funeral for Lydia's grandmother was held. After the funeral, Lydia broke down once again. John hugged her and said, "It's all right, love. We're here for you." She continued to cry. Catherine said, "It's hard to lose a loved one. Trust me. I know. I've Lost a lot of loved ones during the past twenty-four years of my life." Lydia said, "I know wewe have. I'd never once say I had it worse than you." Pattie felt bad for Lydia, especially since neither of them had any grandparents left. Pattie then said, "Oh, Lydia, I wish I could do something to make wewe feel better." Lydia said, "Just talk to me, Pattie, and I'll be all right." Pattie said, "All right. I'll keep talking to you." The inayofuata morning, Lydia paid her final respects to her grandmother before the burial. As they left, Gavin asked, "Do wewe ever visit your grandparents' graves, Lydia?" She replied, "No. The thing is, they're not there. What's the point?" Marie asked, "You mean wewe never considered putting flowers on their graves?" Lydia said, "I never considered it. There's no point in it. There is a lyric from a song called 'Gone Away' kwa the Offspring that sticks with me. 'Black roses and hail Marys, I can't bring back what's taken from me.' Leaving flowers on their graves won't bring them back. If it would bring them back, I'd do it." Rebecca said, "That makes sense when wewe put it into that perspective." John said, "And people tend to steal flowers from graves." Catherine added, "And some people do worse things than that." Lydia said, "Such as draw sickening symbols on them." She shuddered at the thought. Pattie said, "I'd rather not think about that." Marie said, "Let's not." That day, Lydia, John, and their Marafiki ate lunch at a local diner. Lydia said, "This was one of my inayopendelewa places to eat when I lived here." After lunch, Lydia showed John and her Marafiki where she went to school. She said, "The high school seemed so big when I attended it. Now it doesn't seem so big." Catherine asked, "How many years have wewe been out of high school?" Lydia replied, "Eight, going on nine." Gavin said, "It doesn't seem possible. wewe graduated right before I started high school." John said, "I've been out of high school the same amount of time." Marie asked, "Will wewe go to your high school reunion?" Lydia said, "No, I will not." John said, "I won't go either. This is how I feel about high school reunions. If I haven't contacted someone in twenty years, there's probably a reason." Everyone laughed. Pattie said, "I don't blame you. My classmates weren't that great." Lydia said, "Some of mine were all right, but I wasn't very close with many of them. My problem was that I was often surrounded kwa idiots." Catherine remarked, "It's not a good feeling, is it?" Lydia said, "No. It's all right now, though. I'm surrounded kwa awesome Marafiki instead." Rebecca said, "Aw! We upendo you, too, Lydia." The group shared a hug and headed back to Lydia's childhood home.

TO BE CONTINUED....