Free The Legacy: Making Wishes Come True by Lurlene McDaniel Page B

She had assumed that once the doctors operated, Noreen’s stomach tumor would be a thing of the past.
    “Not exactly.” Shannon blew her nose. “Her doctor told us that when he opened her up, he found other tumors. Many others. In fact, there were so many that he couldn’t begin to get them all. So, hetook out the largest ones, then sewed her back up. As soon as Noreen recuperates from the surgery, they’re going to send her home. You see, there’s nothing else they can do for her. Nothing. My sister’s going to die.”

Thirteen

    “N OREEN’S DYING!” J ENNY sobbed to her grandmother that evening when she came for a visit. “Noreen’s just fifteen! She’s younger than me.”
    “I’m so sorry, Jenny.” Grandmother stroked Jenny’s back, attempting to calm her.
    “It’s wrong! Why is this happening to her? Why can’t the doctors
do
something to save her? Why did they put her through all the torture of chemo and radiation if it wasn’t going to make her well?”
    “They had no way of knowing, Jenny. They had to
try.”
    “Try! I’m sick of hearing
try
. Why can’t they make her well?”
    “You’re getting yourself all worked up over something you can’t change. It isn’t healthy.”
    “Nothing’s healthy, is it? And I don’t care if I’m all worked up.… I want to change things for Noreen. I want to make things different for all of us.”
    Grandmother looked distraught, and Jenny realizedthat her anger was only upsetting the woman. She wanted to stop her tirade, but couldn’t. It was as if her frustration had reached volcanic proportions and she was helpless to control the eruption. In despair, Jenny buried her face in her hands and wept bitterly.
    Her grandmother stroked her tenderly. “I wish I could change all of this for you, Jenny. I wish I could make it all go away with a wave of my hand, but of course, I can’t. Sometimes, I weigh all of what’s happening to you … to us … against other calamities that have occurred in my life. I remember the day your father and I had our disagreement.”
    Jenny’s sobs quieted as she listened. Grandmother rarely talked about her son—Jenny’s father.
    “Warren had spent the summer in London and had come home on fire with idealistic dreams about changing the world. He’d also met your mother and fallen in love with her. I refused to listen to him, refused to believe that he could want anything other than the plans I had made for him. We had a terrible fight.”
    Jenny looked up, wiping her cheeks with the hem of the bed sheet. Her grandmother’s eyes had taken on a faraway look.
    “He stormed out of the house and returned to London. In reality, he stormed out of my life. Do you know, we didn’t speak again until you were born?”
    Jenny shook her head. “They never told me.”
    “You were the magnet that brought us back together.” Grandmother smiled wistfully. “It was a tentative union, but at least, we were on speaking terms. He and your mother, Barbara, came for a visit when you were only three months old. I was preparedto dislike her and be indifferent to you.” Another smile. “Instead, I discovered a lovely young woman who adored my son and their child, and the most beautiful baby girl I’d ever set eyes upon.”
    “I didn’t know,” Jenny said.
    “When they returned to London and got an assignment with the Peace Corps in Africa, I was heartbroken. Even then, I assumed your father wanted to return to my world. He did not, of course. He had his own world. And when he died, my world changed forever.”
    “You inherited me.”
    “Yes.… Barbara had no family to speak of in Britain, so you came to me. You were a frightened child, all alone in the world. I was terrified about raising you.”
    “You were?” Jenny never thought her grandmother was afraid of anything. She always seemed so confident, so in control.
    “I hadn’t been around a child in years, and suddenly, I was responsible for my