All Chapters of THE MEET UP: Chapter 71 - Chapter 73

​Fifty-two years old, then there are fifteen grandchildren already around.Fifteen.A fresh page helps when listing things out. Tracking details gets easier that way.David and Grace have four children: Lily nine, Peter seven Hannah five and newborn Joshua, Amara and James have five, Maya eight, Sofia six, Clara, four and one-year---old twins Naomi and Nathan Zara and Marcus have a six-month-old daughter Emma Kiya and Samuel are still in South Africa waiting for their first childFifteen,” says Amon again, his eyes on the sketch of names I made.“Soon to be sixteen.”“I’m too old for this.”“You’re fifty-one. Not old.”“I feel ancient.”These days, the kids come through our door like trains on a schedule.Fridays roll in, then David takes the kids somewhere while Grace waits at home. Nights stretch quiet once the house empties out. Dinner gets warmed on low heat. Laughter returns when they talk without interruptions.When James stays at work past dark, Amara shows up on her own.Freq

Fog lifts slowly above the stones where she lies. Time folds into itself near this place. Forty winters passed since Ayana left. We stand quiet by the marker now. Memory hums low beneath our feet.At my age now — sixty-eight — the days feel heavier. Seventy years old, Amon moves slower too. Pain tags along most mornings, never asking permission. What happened long ago sticks clearer than what came last week. Yet here it remains, steady through all of it: our love. Not fading, just deeper.Here every child has come. David, age fifty, arrives alongside his grown kids — four in total — and brings along three little grandkids too. Great-grandmother — that title? It catches me off guard each time. Still does.Forty-eight-year-old Amara sits beside her six kids. Last year marked James’s exit from Mulago Hospital. Now, maps and faraway cities fill their conversations.Forty-two years old, Zara wears scrubs and listens to heartbeats. A mother of three, she walks hospital halls much like James