I must admit, I hoped Gran might leave me her jewellery. Instead, on her deathbed, she passed me a box with a shaky hand and said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Melody dear, take this to Chris at Hedgehog Aid. Oh, and this is for you.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, this did look interesting. An ornate gilt-edged diary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her death was peaceful, or at least it looked that way from where we were sitting, on three wooden chairs dragged in from the kitchen. I was perched between my Mum and her estranged sister Alice, engulfed in their icy silence. The moment Gran passed, a warm glow filled the room, easing the tension and even some of the grief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
All around us, rescue animals of all kinds meandered about. A three-legged cat settled into Aunt Alice\u2019s lap just as she was dabbing her eyes, red nails shimmering in the morning light. I avoided Mum\u2019s gaze to prevent myself laughing. Aunt Alice hates animals and would have been lamenting the damage to her suede skirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So when Gran left all the animals to Aunt Alice, and her collection of couture clothes to Mum, who works on a farm and has no eye for fashion, it made no sense. Not until a month after Gran\u2019s death, when Mum called me and said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Alice and I are on the phone every day now for advice on styling and animal care!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I smiled to myself. If there was one thing Gran was more obsessed with than animals, it was repairing her daughters\u2019 relationship. That, and my lack of a husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gran\u2019s diary remains a mystery. Since it was only February when she died, it was mostly empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for the box, it\u2019s taken me months to get around to bringing it to Hedgehog Aid. It occurs to me as I rest it on the counter and wait for the guy to get off the phone, that it might be an actual hedgehog. Jesus, I hope not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Can I help you?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has the most mesmerising green eyes I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We stare for too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My bright tone clashes with my words. \u2018Yes! My Gran, Gloria, died. Said to bring this to Chris.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018That\u2019s me,\u2019 he says. \u2018Sorry to hear about lovely Gloria.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He lifts out a hedgehog plush toy. \u2018There\u2019s a note for you, Melody, <\/em>and one for me.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n A jolt of electricity travels through me when he says my name, and again as he hands me the envelope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Cute, isn\u2019t he?\u2019 says Gran\u2019s swirling scrawl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Mine says, \u2018Cute, isn\u2019t she?\u2019\u2019 says Chris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We both look at the hedgehog and blush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later, as I\u2019m getting ready for my date with Chris, I pick up Gran\u2019s diary again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My breath catches when I open it. The diary is full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She\u2019s still writing in it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I read today\u2019s entry, I have to sit down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Now that you\u2019ve finally been to see Chris, I\u2019ll tell you where the jewellery is. But I won\u2019t reveal the meaning of life until after the wedding\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I must admit, I hoped Gran might leave me her jewellery. Instead, on her deathbed, she passed me a box with a shaky hand and said, \u2018Melody dear, take this to Chris at Hedgehog Aid. Oh, and this is for you.\u2019 Now, this did look interesting. An ornate gilt-edged diary. Her death was peaceful, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211","service":"facebook","timestamp":1772620578,"status":"success"},{"account":"twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305","service":"twitter","timestamp":1772620578,"status":"error"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1792,1815],"tags":[402,1131,1834,921,604,1833,7,13,1168,110,1835,9,14,11,172],"class_list":["post-2635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1792","category-the-gift","tag-alice","tag-animals","tag-aunt","tag-box","tag-gran","tag-hedgehog","tag-her","tag-me","tag-might","tag-mum","tag-passed","tag-said","tag-she","tag-was","tag-when"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-Gv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2636,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2635\/revisions\/2636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}