But she never, ever complains.
“I have everything I need,” she always says. “A roof. My garden. My grandbabies. What else could I want?”
And every birthday, every Christmas, every graduation, she bakes. For everyone. For free. Birthday cakes for her neighbors’ kids. Pies for the church potluck. Cookies for the mailman. Banana bread for the new family down the street.
Ezoic
She never asks for anything back. Not once. Not in seventy-three years.
Which is exactly why what Ashley did was so cruel.
My brother Daniel met Ashley two years ago at his friend’s birthday party.
Daniel is twenty-nine. Two years older than me. He’s a software engineer at a big company downtown. He makes good money. Really good money. He’s tall and goofy and kind, with the same chocolate-smeared grin he had when he was six. He’s the kind of guy who stops to help people change flat tires on the highway and gives his lunch to homeless people outside his office.
