We received a piece of terrible news at Trevor Hall today. Shortly after breakfast, a long distance telephone call came in. For Tammy. At first, we were excited. We seldom receive telephone calls, unless Piers is phoning in instructions. Tammy took the call in the library and after a bit, I heard crying. When I looked in on her, she was sitting on the floor in tears.
That call came from Tammy’s aunt to tell her that her grandmother had died during the night. Although her nana lived with Tammy’s aunt’s family, she and Tammy were close all her life. This has been a big blow to Tammy. They hadn’t seen each other since Tammy left for school in the spring. She had been planning to visit her nana in November for the Holy Days.
I sat next to her and held her hand as she told me all of this. Smithy looked in on us for a moment on his way outside to play with Wanda and Jeff and dashed off. He returned a few moments later bringing Tammy a box of Kleenex. I asked Wanda about that later, but she insists they didn’t give it to him. He spontaneously made the offering himself. He also gave Tammy a hug. She was touched.
So Tammy will be leaving us briefly. She goes home tomorrow for her nana’s funeral, but says she’ll be back by the end of the week. I can’t imagine making such a short trip. Think of the expense involved in traveling back and forth for just three days! I would have thought Tammy would want to stay on longer to be with her family and grieve or sort out the estate, but she says she doesn’t want to leave our project short-staffed. Maybe she’s worried Piers will replace her if she takes a longer leave, although she said he sounded supportive when she told him about her trip.
I hope she returns soon. I shouldn’t be so selfish, but I enjoy her company, and she balances out Wanda. Tammy can buckle down and work hard too, but she has fun with what she does.
It’s much too quiet in the house now. None of us knows what to say or do. Smithy seems uneasy too. Sad, sad days…