Two years, that’s how long it had been since my great grandfather had passed. Two years I had been running around the world shying away from my guilt over how he died and how I couldn’t save him in the end.

“His disease is extremely rare and not easily cured. It would be incredibly costly nearing the millions in procedure costs” I remember the doctor speaking to me and my father as if it was yesterday. “Normally this disease occurs much earlier in life, like it did with your father, Alvaro” he nodded at my father. “We might’ve been able to use less costly procedures had you brought him in earlier” my father’s anger began to bubble over.

“Why wouldn’t you listen to us and come see the doctor? You could’ve been fine, we could have afforded to care for you! But now I don’t know what we will be able to do. Unless Lucia decides to hand over his inheritance from my father you will just have to sit in this hospital and die!” my father turned and left the room in a huff. I was in a sort of stunned silence with tears rolling down my face. I was thinking about how much I had inherited, I planned to use it for my travels around the world like my grandpa and I always talked about but sitting here now watching my great grandfather suffer I knew I needed to hand over the money. As I stood to go find a doctor, my great grandfather spoke

“Lucia, come to me” I walked to his beside and took his hand “Lucia, do not spend that money on me, I know it is my time to go take your money and travel like you and my little Alvie always planned to. But make me one promise” tears were streaming down my face, I could taste the saltiness of them as I opened my mouth to speak, and my nose felt clogged in ways that only summer pollen makes it feel. “Yes papa, what is it?” “Visit my homeland, our homeland, Ireton and go to the cliff side by the lighthouse and say that I’m sorry, that Marcel is sorry”

He passed away two days later. My father blamed me and called me selfish for not trying to save him. He wouldn’t speak to me or even look at me at the funeral. I left two days after that. Bought a boat and set sail, knowing I had to keep my promise to my great grandfather but still needing time to grieve.

I traveled all over, visiting as many countries as I could on my little boat, I saw wonderful things from lush tropical islands in the Caribbean to quaint hard-working port cities in southeast Asia. But everywhere I went to I felt the weight of the promise I made to my great grandfather on my chest. I understood him wanting me to see our homeland but why did I need to apologize for him at the cliffs? What had happened there? It haunted me every night in my dreams.

“So you are telling me that you are Marcel De Ire’s great grandson and you don’t even know why he left his homeland?” Samantha’s exclamation jolted me back into the present. “Well he never really spoke of why he left home, he said he was young and he couldn’t handle what his home life was like” I spoke softly. Bringing up my papa was hard for me. “Do you want to know why he left?” I nodded as Samantha began to tell of my great grandfather’s tragic past.

“Because Lord Ire kept his wife Marie locked away for her protection her illness only grew worse. She began to lose contact with reality and tried attacking her son, thinking he was one of her demons come to life. Lord Ire blamed Marcel for the worsening of his wife’s condition and treated him ruthlessly, making him work from dawn until dusk, starving him or giving only scraps, and beating him. No one in town dared say anything against the Lord and just watched as Marcel suffered. When Marcel was around 15 he went to speak one night with his mother when she appeared calmer than normal, he wanted to ask her to leave with him and travel to America to save her from his father and to get her the help she needed. Unfortunately, he arrived too late. His mother was gone. He raced to the cliffs in a panic knowing that she would be there, he saw her on the edge and he ran to her calling out ‘Mama!’ but before he could reach her she jumped. Marcel left that night, stole a boat and left. Lord Ire said that his son probably set off to sea causing his wife to jump but that both are now dead.”

“And that’s what everyone here had thought until now” she finished telling the story.