“She’s right about Gloria and me, but she was clumsy.” Tootsie laughed with her.

“Are we crazy?” Sissy asked. “Sitting here beside my dead sister and laughing?”

“She’s probably giggling with us, and I like to think that she’s doing it from the bottom of her chest and not wheezing for every breath anymore,” Tootsie said.

Sissy squeezed her hand. “Me, too.”

The laughter stopped, and more tears began. Tootsie pulled her hand free and said, “I’ll stay with you until the funeral home comes for her, and I can stay tonight if you want me to.”

“Two of the ladies from our Sunday-school class will be here as soon as I call them to help with the food that will be coming in. We’ll have a dinner here tomorrow after the services. They’ll spend the night and be here to take care of things in the morning while we’re at the cemetery. She’ll be buried in the Manchester Cemetery with Ralph and her children. The family will be together again.” Sissy patted Midge’s hand. “Her hands always get so cold. I have to remember to tell the funeral director that I don’t want her hands crossed over her chest. She needs to have them under the quilt.”

“We should write things like that down so we don’t forget anything. We should do everything just like she said.” Tootsie gestured for a pen.

Sissy opened the drawer of a bedside table and brought out a small notebook and a pen. “She liked to keep this handy to make notes.”

Tootsie flipped it open. “There’s nothing here now.”

“We tore out the last page she wrote on this morning before you arrived. It had a note to give you the box of letters. I guess that was her final message,” Sissy sighed.

Tootsie thought of Smokey’s final message. After Sunday dinner, he’d given her a hug, kissed her on the forehead, and said, “I love you, darlin’.”

Sissy removed her phone from the pocket of her shirt and called someone named Henrietta. Within five minutes, two ladies were at the house, and only a few minutes after that the funeral-home director was there to take Midge away. Tootsie walked beside the gurney all the way to the hearse, kissed her friend on the forehead, and told her goodbye.

She watched the vehicle pass her old red truck at the end of the driveway. One was taking away her last living childhood friend; the other was on the way to take her home. Luke bailed out of the truck and jogged across the yard. He opened his arms, and she walked into them.

“She’s gone.” Tootsie laid her head on his shoulder. “I’m the only one left of the three little girls who grew up together. I’m so glad that I came today instead of waiting until tomorrow.”

“What can I do to help?” he asked.

“You can wait right here. I need to go tell Sissy that I’m leaving. She’s got everything under control. Tomorrow morning at ten o’clock we need to be at the Manchester Cemetery for the service,” Tootsie said.

“Why so quick? Can all her family make it that fast?” Luke frowned.

“It’s what she wanted, and she hated the idea of embalming. Plus, the only family she has is Sissy, and whatever friends are left probably live within a fifteen-mile radius. News travels fast amongst folks in this area. I’ll be right back. Wait for me in the truck.” Tootsie broke free from his embrace and crossed the yard to the porch.

The first thing Diana found out that Monday morning was that there was no internet service in Scrap, Texas. She sat down on the top step of the porch and fretted about whether to call her supervisor and explain the situation. Maybe she should just take a couple of weeks’ vacation time and then fly back to San Antonio. When she heard the rumble of a vehicle turning into the driveway, she shaded her eyes with her hand and watched the truck as it came closer and closer.

Tootsie looked like she’d been through a wringer backward when Luke helped her out of the truck. She forgot all about her job situation as she jogged over. “Are you all right? You’re pale as a sheet.”

“I just lost my last childhood friend. I’m so glad that I went today.” Tootsie wiped tears from her eyes.

“I’m so sorry.” Diana threw an arm around her shoulders and fell in beside her. “What can I do?”

“Y’all being here with me is the best thing you can do for me right now. Letting me be part of your lives and be needed,” Tootsie sighed. “Now, you need to go help Luke get the groceries and supplies in the house.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Diana said and then yelled as she opened the door, “Carmen. Joanie. Tootsie needs you.”

Luke already had two bags in each hand when she got back to the truck. “This is going to be tough on her. She just lost Smokey a month ago and now Midge. And her army wives friend, Delores, is failing.”

“Got any ideas about what we can do to help?” Diana picked up a couple of bags and followed him to the house.

“Keep her busy so she doesn’t have time to worry and think. She’s probably already seeing her own end in sight,” Luke suggested. “And by the way, you look nice today. That sweater is the exact color of your eyes.”

“Thank you.”

It might have seemed strange to someone else, but with all the recent events, his comment was a life preserver in the midst of an ocean—a simple compliment to hang on to when the stormy waters of life were sweeping over her.

“I hope she lives to be a hundred,” Luke said. “She and Uncle Smokey have been like grandparents to me. I don’t want to think about life without her.”

Diana had faced death with her own parents and then more recently with Smokey. But just the thought of losing Tootsie brought tears to her eyes. She blinked them back, but that little niggling voice in the back of her mind said that Tootsie was the same age as Midge.

Carmen swung the door open for them. “Tootsie says that she’s going to help put things away. I told her that we could do it all, but . . .”

“She needs to stay busy,” Diana whispered. “Let her do whatever she wants.”

After a brief nod, Carmen went out to the truck and hauled in more bags. “Who’d have thought that five people would eat up this much food in only a week?”

“I hope there’s some extra in those bags, because we need to show up at the dinner after the funeral tomorrow with a casserole or a dessert in our hands,” Tootsie said.