Story: Remember

Jo was 5 and she loved her great grandma loads. Great-grandma had been rather strict with her own children but Jo seemed to bring out the child in her again. She loved it when Jo came to visit her in her room. To everyone's amazement, she said, 'I'm not going to be called Great-grandma. You can call me Granny Annie.'

Jo always muddled it up and often said Annie Granny. Everyone thought that strict Annie would go mad, but she loved it and said, 'Just call me Annie.' Then one day Granny Annie had to go into hospital and the doctors told the family that she would not live for much longer.

Dad told Jo that Annie was really ill and that she would die soon. Jo burst into tears and her dad held her close. Then after a while when the tears had gone Jo said that she wanted to go and see Annie in the hospital to say goodbye. She had a day off from school and sat on Granny Annie's bed and talked to her just like she did when she had visited her at home. The next day Annie died and everyone was sad. People tried to keep Jo out of the way because they didn't want her to get upset but Jo knew her own mind. She said she wanted to go to the funeral. She cried a lot.

The funeral directors after the service in the church said to Jo's parents that perhaps it would be better if Jo didn't come to the crematorium. Jo heard this and was really angry. She shouted at the funeral people, 'She was my Annie, and I'm going. You can't stop me!'

Jo sat holding her dad's hand and she cried a lot because she desperately missed Annie. After the service there were cakes and sandwiches at home and people started to remember the stories.

People talked about the past and the hard times in bringing up children. Then Jo said, 'I saw her do something naughty once.' Everybody stopped talking and looked at Jo! 'She drank her gravy off the plate, but she did look around to check if anybody was looking.' Everybody laughed and remembered so many things.

A week later, Jo went with the family to take Annie's ashes to the garden of remembrance. They were scattered in the same place where Annie's husband's ashes had been scattered before Jo was born. Jo put two small flowers on the spot and prayed for them both.