The Truth Is the Light by Vanessa Davie Griggs Page B

there.”
    â€œDid you ever find”—Zenobia swallowed hard—“your daughter? My sister?”
    â€œNo. I left on the twenty-ninth of April intending on locating Sarah. She deserved to know our daughter had lived. Our daughter was with this other family now. They had moved and no one knew or could tell me where they were. After about a year of trying, I headed for Detroit, Michigan. Went to work for the Ford Motor Company, who were hiring coloreds as janitors and for other type of jobs that weren’t great but paid better than most. I met your mama. We married, had your two brothers and you, Zenobia. Course later on things did open up more for colored people at Ford. I moved into a better position. But by then, it was close time for me to retire.” He shook his head. “Who would have ever thought or believed that even with me retiring at the age of seventy, I would still be around some thirty years later? God has been good to me. He’s been so good.”
    â€œDaddy, do you know my . . . sister’s name? Did Pearl happen to know or tell you her name?”
    â€œMemory.” Gramps nodded.
    â€œI know you have a good memory, Daddy. But did Pearl happen to know your daughter’s name?”
    Gramps grinned. “Memory. That’s actually her name: Memory Elaine.”

Chapter 15

    The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.
    â€”Proverbs 10:7

    â€œW hy are you telling us this now, Gramps?” Knowledge asked when he saw how the words his grandfather was speaking were affecting his mother.
    Gramps got to his feet. “I’m telling y’all this now because of a wooden box I made with wings on the inside of its lid that has somehow set off a chain of events.”
    â€œA box you made?” Knowledge asked.
    â€œYes. As I said, when I was young, I loved working with my hands. I loved creating things from wood; I had a special relationship with wood. I crafted this wooden carved box for Sarah. Her mother liked it so much, she asked me to make two more. I gave them those three boxes with wings etched on the inside of the lids, but I kept one because it wasn’t as perfect as I wanted, but wasn’t bad enough to throw away. I’ve had that box now for seventy-something years. I packed it and took it with me after I came back from that prison camp. And it’s been with me ever since.”
    â€œGramps, you just said it set off a chain of events,” Clarence said. “What chain?”
    Gramps sat back down. “Yeah. I pulled out that old box from the trunk in my room. You know the one that sits over in the corner?”
    â€œYeah,” Zenobia said.
    â€œWell, I pulled out the wooden box to get an old watch out of it.”
    â€œThe one you gave to me when I was baptized last Sunday,” Clarence said.
    â€œYeah.” Gramps nodded. “That one. I pulled out the box to get the watch, and just when I was about to unlock it, Miss Countess knocked on my door and came in.” Gramps then recounted everything that happened with Countess.
    Zenobia forced a smile. “Well, Daddy, I’m sure there’s a good explanation as to how Miss Countess knew about the wings on the inside of the lid.”
    â€œI’m not finished yet. Her daughter, Johnnie Mae is her name, came to my room because her mother had told her about the box. She didn’t believe I actually had a box as her mother had reported to her. She thought her mother was probably experiencing one of her moments as she’s known to do a lot, especially lately.”
    â€œCountess is that woman in a more advanced stage of Alzheimer’s that you walk with outside from time to time,” Zenobia said, attempting to clarify who Countess was.
    â€œYeah,” Gramps said. “Well, it turns out Miss Countess wasn’t having one of her moments at all. Johnnie Mae couldn’t believe her eyes when I pulled out the box for