The Most Precious Gift of All

Kathy's kindness was the cause of a painful family rift

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The Most Precious Gift of All

Kathy hated seeing the old house looking so sad.  In fact, she would avoid driving past it so that she didn’t have to see the unkempt garden and the weeds encroaching on the windows, which made the house look like it was wearing a sad face. She noticed the wisteria that Dad had so lovingly cared for over the years looked straggly and unkempt. It broke her heart.

The final Court Hearing was due next week and, with any luck, she would be able to salvage the garden before it got completely out of hand. She was fairly optimistic about the outcome being in her favour but still had sleepless nights in case it didn’t.  She was desperate for her plan to work.

The garden ran down to the river and all the kids in the neighbourhood would congregate there during the school holidays bringing fishing nets, swimming goggles and bathing suits.  Summers always seemed hot and sunny when she was growing up and she and her two sisters, Maddie and Megan, would play outside for hours on end, only gravitating back to the house when they were hungry or tired.

The three girls had always been very close growing up and they had had a happy family life, all of it spent at Riverside Cottage.  They had each left home when they got married, one by one, leaving Mum and Dad alone together in their retirement, who decided that downsizing was not for them, and they had stayed put. 

Megan lived the furthest away opting to stay in New Zealand after she had met the love of her life during her backpacking trip.  Maddie lived in Scotland, having qualified as a doctor at Edinburgh University and met a Scotsman, Andrew, whom she married and then subsequently divorced a few years later but opted to stay in the city she had fallen in love with. She had an unhealthy relationship with alcohol.