The Neallys

Kerry: Thanksgiving 2016, in Yonkers

Kerry: Thanksgiving 2016, in YonkersBy mid-November, I started to feel comfortable in school. Doubts about whether I deserved to be there had washed away as I found the material challenging but also interesting and in my comfort zone. Other students would ask for my spin about cases—remember, classes were all about cases—after class was over, and Suze engaged with them too. We got through midterms, and work on our course outlines was going well for pre-Christmas finals.

Rather than heading up to Connecticut to be with my Aunt and Uncle in Fairfield for Thanksgiving, we stayed close to home, joining Suze—Annie was with a classmate in Jersey—and her Aunt’s family in Yonkers. Which is how I met Peter and Michael. They spent alternate holidays with Betty, their birth mother, and Gerry, their dad, who now lived in Baltimore with his second wife, and this was the year to be in New York. Peter was the older and Michael the one at BC.

Suze and I took a stroll after dinner and she told me that this was the first time she’d ever felt that she was at a family Thanksgiving. I put my arm around her waist and she did the same to me as we walked on the street. It was quiet, with no traffic, and well lit. “And,” she said after a pause, “I also felt, and I think my Aunt and Betty felt, that you and your Mom are part of our family.”

I knew that my Mom had spent a lot of time with Mary and Betty in the short time since they met and they acted like sisters when they were preparing dinner.

“You know, I can’t recall when I last saw my Mom as alive as she was today. I’m real happy about that, but I draw the line if she starts asking for group hugs.”

She tightened her grip for a moment, and we continued in silence. When we got back to the house, everyone was lethargic and Mom and I bid everyone a good night, leaving with various left-overs from dinner and dessert.

Since she stayed at her Aunt’s, Suze came to my place on Friday and again on Saturday. I grabbed things from the Cave and we spread our stuff out on the coffee table in the living room. We, together and separately, engaged in hours of studying, our joint silences interrupted periodically when I would ask her about a case or she did the same to me and by my Mom bringing us, yes, turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce she had taken home from Mary’s at about one each day and fresh coffee every few hours.

Suze and I decided to take a break with dinner in town on Saturday, and we agreed not to speak of class or the law while we were out. I don’t recall what we talked about, but I remember how relaxed and pleasant the night was even after she dropped me off and headed to her Aunt’s. And I remember that she paused a moment before putting the Camry in gear to leave after saying “good night.”