The next day was a good day for Gini. She was up walking and very alert. They all sat and played braille cards, including the newly engaged couple. Gini signed some, and Jennifer knew what she said. It took no time before Jennifer was one of the family. She and Gini had an affection for each other from the beginning.
The day soon came when all the college kids had to go back to school.
“Now, Mama, you take care of yourself.”
“Yes, yes.”
Jessica turned back as she went out the door. “We’ll talk next weekend.”
Debbie put her arm around Gini. “Baby, are you hungry?”
Gini put her hand on her abdomen. “Bay… be. Jay… son, Jen… ney… fer, bay… be.”
Debbie hugged her. “Baby, what are you trying to say? You’re not pregnant, and neither are Jason and Jennifer.” It worried Debbie that Gini was confused, possibly remembering her twins with the same names. It had been such a long time ago. Would Gini remember her babies?
Three years later, the winter was gone, and the weather finally warm. Robert wheeled Gini to the pond whenever he could. The birds were singing loudly, and the trees and plants were blooming, putting out luscious aromas. The joy on Gini’s face reminded him of when he took her to the atrium in the rehab area when she lived there.
She almost never walked, and her talking became more slurred and slow. Dr. Griese, a new neurosurgeon, Robert, and John had run many tests, finding abnormal formations in her brain. Dr. Griese concluded Gini was in brain failure and there was little they could do but keep her comfortable. The condition could take her life any day or she could live for many more years. It just depended on how fast her brain deteriorated.
The only thing that kept everyone’s spirits high was she still had good days when she seemed her normal self. As long as she continued to have those days, they felt she would be with them for a long while.
Jessica looked forward to summer break. There were many college graduations: Jason, Jennifer, Tim, Jessica, and Yuri. And the second week of July was Jason and Jennifer’s wedding. Jessica had been asked to be Jason’s best gal. She and Jennifer had become very close friends, and Jennifer loved being with the Young family.
In August, Alyssa and Daniel were expecting twins, a girl and boy. They had tried for a couple of years and finally went to Dr. Linda Nelson for fertility help. Aly was in her forties and wanted to have a family. Linda told her many women had children in their forties using the in vitro process. There was some risk, but Alyssa was healthy, and Linda would keep a close eye on the pregnancy. Alyssa wanted to name their children Jessica and Robert, but it was too confusing for Gini to understand having two other children with her kids’ names. So they decided on Candace Virginia and Charles Robert—Candy and Charlie.
But that’s not where the confusion stopped. Robert and Debbie finally realized Gini was talking about Jason and Jennifer being her babies, the twins killed when she had her accident almost twenty-five years before. No matter how they tried to explain it to her, it appeared Gini thought their friends, Jason and Jennifer, were her children.
Before graduation, Gini insisted they present Jessica with her keys to the condo in Boston. Jessica was going to transfer to Harvard Medical School so she could be closer to her mother. Gini had not forgotten the decision they had made about the condo when they moved to New Haven. It had been rented the past years and managed by a leasing agent.
A couple of weeks before the wedding, Jessica and Robert were talking about Gini. “You told me Mama was married before you. What was her husband’s name?”
“Franco Legotti.”
“Jason and Jennifer were his kids; so sad. Why did they divorce?”
“It’s a very complicated story.”
He told how Franco and Gini were estranged and Gini lived with another man named Riccardo Santini. Both men thought the babies were theirs. In the end, it didn’t matter since both the twins were killed. And neither of the men could accept Gini with a brain condition.
“Man, what an awful story. But I’m glad she married you.”
“Me too. She wanted to keep the condo for our daughter. Of course, I didn’t think we were going to have kids, let alone a daughter—your mother’s sixth sense, it’s kind of scary sometimes.”
“I know. I can’t ever explain how she talks to me in my head. I thought it was like that with all kids and their mothers. But when I’d tell my friends, they’d look at me like I was nuts. Crazy, we have such a connection. She’s been telling me about her babies for years, but I never understood what it was all about.”
“What do you mean?”
“She said I have a sister. I questioned what she meant, and she said she had babies. It was all kind of muddled together, but she insists to this day that I have a sister.”
“Did she ever say what the babies’ names were?”
“No, I asked her, but she just said she had babies and that I have a sister.”
The wedding day was beautiful weather. Robert drove the Mercedes to Plymouth for the ceremony. Debbie and Gini sat in the back seat. Gini continually ran her hand up and down the tufted door panel. “Cah, of, Reek.”
Debbie reached over and hugged her. Then she remembered Ric taking her to Gini’s condo before Gini left the rehab unit. And yes, his car was like Robert’s new one.
Gini’s eyes glistened, and her dimples went deep in her cheeks when they went into the church. Her white Bible was in a long-strapped bag that Debbie had made so Gini could carry
