La Luna
My name is La Luna, it means the moon, and my granny gave it to me just after I was born, because my parents were too busy with their careers to think of something themselves. Granny's name was Mavis and she had told me when I was a little girl that she wanted me to have a pretty name, not like hers, and I love it so much. Thank you, thank you granny.
It was granny who got me my first piercings, my ears, after I had pleaded with her for weeks, and we both got in so much trouble from my parents. Granny smiled at me and pretended she was going deaf and couldn't hear them yelling at her. The next day she bought me my lifelong companion, a stuffed bear called Harrison (I called him that after Harrison Ford who I was madly in love with at the time) and he had his earings in his ears the exactly same as mine. He's sitting on my pillow now, watching as I write this and, I think, smiling at me like granny used to do.
I remember the time that she snuck into my room late one night (she used to come see me when my parents were asleep because mum said she was telling her how to raise her child and dad said she was an interfering old woman. I think they only allowed her to live in our house because they were too cheap to send her to an old people's home.). I had had a HUGE argument with my parents that afternoon about getting a stud in my nose and was lying in bed with Harrison, crying. She sat on the bed beside me and gave me a smile and a hug and then she twisted the old wedding ring off her finger. I had never seen her take it off before, and I often told her I didn't understand why she wore it still, after all grandad had died when I was little, many years ago. She had tried to explain many times, but I think I was too young to grasp the significance of what she was saying.
She held the ring to her nose and asked how she would look with a nose ring. I had to hold the pillow over my mouth I was laughing so hard, and when I caught my breath I told her she was being silly. Of course I am dear, she had replied, it would look much better if it was through my eyebrow she had said with a grin, holding the ring to her eyebrow instead.
I almost choked on my scream of laughter and hugged granny so hard she had to ask me to stop. Old bones break easily she had said with a smile.
When I was 15 we went together to get me a tattoo. Just something small, she had suggested, so only we know about it. I asked her to get one too, but she laughed and said that there wasn't enough room between the wrinkles for even a tiny one. So we picked one for me together, a group of three ravens under a full moon. We thought it suited me perfectly, and we never told my parents why it was uncomfortable to sit for a few days.
When I was 18 she gaave me an eyebrow ring for my birthday, she had saved for months to buy it, and she told my parents that I was old enough to make my own decisions when they started to shout again.
They threw us out of the house after that, and said we weren't welcome there anymore, so granny and I moved into a small flat together. At first she paid for it out of her small pension, but I soon got a job working as a clothes designer for a small firm and started paying my way.
Granny was the best ever flatmate. She never complained about the boys I brought home or what I wore or how much of a mess I made in my room. In the kitchen we both made the meals together, but she was getting slow and I had to wait for her to catch up. I didn't mind, after all she had waited many times for me to catch up when I was little.
When I was 21 I met the man I was going to marry, although it hasn't happened 'yet', and he loved granny straight away. It would have stopped right there if he hadn't.
At 22 granny got sick, bad sick, and David who was my fiance now, was a constant visitor and helper. Granny got so thin and tiny that I was almost scared to touch her, but she always gave me hugs and managed to struggle out of bed to have a big cup of tea, a double teabag cuppa for an extra big day she used to say, waiting for me each morning.
Six months later she died. When I arrived home from work and called to her there was no answer. I ran to her room and she was lying on the bed, not moving at all. I started to panic and cry and I rang David crying so hard he could hardly understand me. He came around straight away and I was in a state of panic, my hands waving uselessly in the air and tears streaming down my face. I wanted David to do something, to help her, to bring back my granny, but he said it was too late and I knew it was.
All of my life granny had always been there, loving, supportive, always with a kind smile and a quick hug.
How am I going to make it without granny, I asked David, my whole body shaking with the waves of grief that were washing over me. He thought carefully for a few seconds and said, I learnt a lot from granny he said but I could never be the same as her. Do you think she's mind if I tried to step in and look after you?
Oh you silly, I said, granny loved you almost as much as I do, I honestly don't think she's be anything but proud of you.
The day of granny's funeral came and I cried all day. It's stupid, but until they laid her in the grouund i had been hoping she would wake up and give me one of her grins and a big hug, but she never did, she never would again.
My parents never came to her funeral but they did come around a few days later wanting her wedding ring so they could sell it. I lied and said she had given it to me and that they weren't damn well going to get it and David stood beside me and towered threateningly over them until they gave up and went away.
I've decided that I'm going to send this to you granny to say I finally understand why you wore that silly ring. The same reason I'm wearing it now. To say I miss you and I remember you and everything we did together. I'm still wearing the black dress I wore to your funeral granny and now David has got me some makeup to match it. You should see me now, Gothic and loving it, you would have thought I was so pretty granny. It's what I always wanted, but I thought you'd be here to see, and to help me choose the dress and makeup, just like always.
I have no idea how I'm going to get this to you granny, but I'm putting the address as Mavis care of Heaven, and the postman will have me to answer to if you don't recieve it.
Harrison has inherited your smile, so it will always be like a part of you is still here. I miss you so much granny.
P.S. Don't mind the tear stains, I was crying a little as I wrote it. It's a little messy but you'll know what I mean. You always do.
