At my father’s wake I had almost no one to call. He had left the city many years ago, living in a dilapidated house in his former dacha, with few neighbors, and with no one from his former work. He had seemed like a lonely man to me before, but it was after he died that I realized he had only me. And I also had only him.
In addition to the closest neighbors, Dad’s second ex-wife, who now had another family, came to visit, and the most unexpected guest, whom I had completely forgotten about – my cousin Alice. We used to meet often at my father’s house when I was a kid, but over the years things have changed. She had an unhealthy relationship, lost a child, defended herself from her husband’s beatings and accidentally injured him, for which he sued her and sent her to serve time… Her life was bad before, and she completely unintentionally found out about my father. It turned out that she was already working and wanted to pay for the farewell ceremony with me, because my father had done a lot of good things for her as a child.
Those were hard times for me, and I thought I would never see Alice again after the funeral, but she suddenly started coming to visit more often, and in the summer she helped me rebuild my summer house. We communicated more in six months than we had in our whole lives. I found out she had a husband and a daughter, and eventually I met her family. My niece really lifted my spirits. My own family didn’t work out, but Alice’s was fine, despite her gloomy past.
We communicate to this day, sometimes the four of us go to the cottage, sometimes I look after my niece, but I still cannot believe that my sister had not been in my life for so many years, I considered her a stranger and lost to our family, and she suddenly showed up and filled my life with colors. It’s just a shame my dad didn’t see her come back. He would have been very happy to know that Alice was doing well!
