I hugged her.
“Yes.”
She held me tightly.
Then whispered:
“I thought I'd lost everything. But the one thing they couldn't take was the person who remembered I was still here.”
That evening, we sat together in her living room.
Mom had prepared soup.
I made tea.
For the first time in weeks, Mrs. Wilson seemed relaxed.
Then I remembered the restored photographs.
“Margaret, there's something I wanted to ask you.”
She looked up.
“Yes, sweetheart?”
I handed her the photograph taken outside the hospital in 1963.
Her face changed immediately.
She stared at it for a long time.
Then her hands began shaking.
“Where did you find this?”
“It came back from the restoration studio.”
She touched the picture.
“Oh.”
I hesitated.
“I didn't know you had a baby.”
Mrs. Wilson closed her eyes.
For several seconds, she couldn't speak.
Then she whispered:
“I had a daughter.”
My heart tightened.
