Then she asked what I had received. I opened the old cedar chest Grandma had given me years earlier “just to keep safe things in.” Inside were velvet-lined trays of jewelry—rings worn thin from decades of use, the pearl necklace she wore every Sunday, a leaf-shaped brooch—and stacks of photo albums with soft spines. “Her jewelry,” I said quietly, “and the photo albums.” I flipped through one: Grandma at twenty laughing on a beach, Grandma holding me as a baby, Grandma in her kitchen with flour on her cheek. She had known what mattered to me and what would break my sister.

Later that day I made tea and sat with an album open on my lap. I remembered the way Grandma used to squeeze my hand twice when she was happy and the quiet way she once said that some things look valuable until you have to carry them. The house was heavy. Love never was. For the first time since the funeral I smiled—not out of spite, but understanding. Grandma had not forgotten me. She had protected me.