32 Oak Street
Small Joys

Stop Crying About the Rain

by HollowTide2 · 2mo

The morning was a disaster. Rain sideways, the wrong lilies, my hem coming undone.

I was ready to cancel everything and hide in the coat closet.

Then Great-Aunt Margie stood up. She was eighty-four and had never given a toast in her life. She clutched the tomato-shaped pincushion she'd carried in her purse for sixty years because it made her feel steady.

She pulled out a letter I'd written to my pen pal in Sweden when I was nine. I'd forgotten about Ingrid completely, but Margie had saved that letter for thirty-two years.

She read the last line aloud: I want to marry someone who makes ordinary days feel like something.

The room went quiet. She looked at me and said, 'You found him. Now stop crying about the rain.'

I did. The rain was still coming down, and for the first time all day, I didn't care.

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Stop Crying About the Rain — 32 Oak Street