Chapter 383

AMELIA Ihold the stuffed bear close to my heart and wonder if I’ll ever let it go. It’s old and tattered now, one ear hanging off and her once shiny eyes dull with age. She’s wearing a T-shirt, as all grizzlies do, of course, that’s emblazoned with the words 1 Mama Bear. I lie on Mom’s bed, hugging that bear and inhaling the scent of her that lurks on the pillowcases. I look around at the room that’s been hers for as long as I’ve been alive and see the layers of her life. The clothes in the closet. The brush on her dresser that still contains strands of her precious hair. The half-used bottle of Anais Anais perfume that she loved so much. I will always treasure it. The still-unfinished romance novel on her bedside table. She only had a few chapters left to go, and it makes me unbearably sad that she will never get to the happy ending. There is so much to do, and I don’t want to do any of it. I need to go through her wardrobe and bag things up for donation. I need to speak to the funera