I thanked him, and he left not long after to go get flowers for Angie. “I wonder if he asked Kallie about Gemma,” I said to Alice in a hushed voice not long after he’d gone. She gave me what I deemed as close to a shrug as she could, and I laughed. “It’s not important, I just think it’s cute. Did you notice anything on the days I wasn’t here?”

Her eyes lit up at the prospect of gossip, but the light went out when reality set in again and she remembered she couldn’t tell me about it. She just nodded instead, which was fine with me. “They’re probably cute, huh?” I asked, and she nodded. It made me smile. “I’m glad she might have found someone again.” I saw Alice starting to roll her eyes again, and I laughed. “I know, I know, it’s too early yet. Forgive me for hoping my daughter might be happy for a change,” I told her sarcastically. She just shrugged and smiled.

I figured it was as good a time as any to continue the story. There was still awhile before Shane would come to get me, and I didn’t want to spend the whole time making fun of Kallie. So, I decided to remember her childhood instead.

**********

It really hadn’t taken much for us to get adjusted to Kallie’s new way of life. She didn’t seem to care at all, either, which was probably because she was so small. But she took to the changes really easily. We’d decided to start her on an insulin pump to avoid the daily injections, and although she hated testing her blood, she did it. Alice could never seem to bring herself to prick Kallie’s finger or to help with the dosing for the pump, which meant that it was up to me.

I didn’t really mind it. We’d sat through almost a week of day-long classes about diet, exercise, signs of a low and high, and how to change the tube on the catheter, so I felt I was pretty prepared. I’d even taken the nurses, doctors and dieticians aside and asked for more details on their various lessons. I learned how to change the tube on the catheter, how to give bolus insulin to cover meals, and a bunch of other little things.