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Show 243 it over to grasp her hand, there was a hard, thin strength to it, she held Sharon's hand firmly. "It's good to have the kids here. Lynn's afraid they bother me-that's why she's outside now. She's awfully good about it. But they don't bother me that much." She fell into silence, but her hand remained gripping Sharon's. She looked at the tree, and Sharon followed her gaze to the angel ornament. "I had my heart attack just after I lost my Walter," she suddenly said, "it was hard on me, him going off like that. I couldn't understand it." Sharon took a deep breath. "It was hard on us all," she said, her own voice sounding strange in her ears. "It's not natural," Granny said, "to outlive your own child." Sharon squeezed her hand. "I didn't want to live afterwards. After Walter died. When my heart stopped beating, I was glad. It hurt-oh, it hurt. But I was glad. Even when it was happening. Right when it hurt the most, I was glad." There were tears in her eyes, the wrinkles and lines in her small face twisted, as if she were angry. Sharon grasped her hand hard. "Let's not talk about that now." "But I want to live now," Granny said. "Every day now, I wake up and I want to live." "So do I," Sharon found herself saying, "so do I." Granny fell into silence, gazing at the angel, the wrinkles now relaxing into their natural lines in her small, shrunken face. And studying that face-which had seen so much pain, so much life-Sharon felt something passing from her: a part of that loss which she had |