A Summer With Rose by Gary Cottle

Kayla offered to look after her grandmother Rose the summer after her junior year. Rose had been diagnosed with cancer early in January, and everyone knew that more than likely she would need someone to be there with her full time by June. Kayla’s parents agreed to pay her the same amount of money she would have earned working the counter down at Pete’s Drycleaners. Kayla was to cook, do the shopping, clean the house, take care of the yard and do the laundry.

Rose lived in a small, rural community. The place was pretty isolated, and Kayla didn’t know anybody there except her grandmother, and she was much too busy to make friends. When the home healthcare people were in the house, or when Rose took a nap in the afternoon, Kayla would go swimming in a nearby pond by herself or take a solitary walk along the railroad tracks.

She was a little lonely sometimes, but not nearly as lonely as she feared she would be. That’s because Rose turned out to be better company than Kayla expected. Kayla and Rose became friends that summer. They began to relate to one another as fellow women and fellow human beings.

When Rose was up to it, she and Kayla would sit outside on the porch and talk while sipping iced tea. Kayla felt comfortable telling her grandmother about certain incidents that she had, up until then, kept secret. She told Rose about how guilty she felt for breaking the heart of the boy she dated the year before. Kayla broke up with him even though he was a nice young man who had been good to her. She simply wasn’t in love with him, and she came to realize that she shouldn’t stay with him out of a sense of pity or loyalty.

Kayla also told her grandmother about getting lost while backpacking alone the summer after she graduated from high school. She wandered around for a day and a half before she finally stumbled on a trail that led her back to civilization. By that time, she was in a state of near panic. She feared she would die before anyone found her. Kayla was too ashamed to tell anyone about what had happened because she had made such an issue of how she was an adult and how she should be treated like one.

Rose revealed that she had gone to Woodstock and that she had gone topless there for several hours. She was nearing 30 and she just had Kayla’s mother a few months before. She felt her youth slipping away from her, so she left her baby with her sister for a few days, and she did something fun and crazy. She also told Kayla about an affair she had with a grocery store manager in 1977.

The young woman began to have a greater appreciation for the fact that Rose had a life aside from being a wife, mother and grandmother. Rose had been young once, and for her, it didn’t seem like it was all that long ago. She had dreams, hopes, aspirations, and unfulfilled longings, disappointments, and a few noteworthy triumphs. Rose had passed through all the stages of life, and now she was at the end.

Kayla cried for Rose. She knew she was scared, and she knew she loved her life and didn’t want to let go. The girl also cried for herself because she knew she was going to miss her grandmother. She knew that she wasn’t going to be young forever, and one day it would be her turn to die.

Kayla then laughed at some of the funny things Rose had said, and when she got to her feet and began walking back to her grandmother’s house, she was filled with gratitude. She had been given this chance to get to know Rose before it was too late.

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Fictional short story by Gary Cottle