**How Grandma Toni Found Her Daughter**
A quiet evening settled over the countryside as Antonia Simmonsknown to everyone in the village simply as Grandma Tonistepped out of her little cottage and walked to the neighbours fence. She rapped three times on the windowpane with her knuckles. A moment later, the wrinkled, surprised face of her neighbour, Mary Stevenson, appeared, and she swung open the creaky front door.
“Toni, love, what are you doing standing there like a stranger? Come in, dont be shyIve just put the kettle on!” Mary called across the yard, though her voice already carried a note of worry.
“No, Mary, thank you, I wont stay,” Toni murmured, surprised at the tremor in her own voice. “Ive come to ask you a favoursomething important. I need to go to the city, to the regional hospital. Ive got an urgent referral. My eyes theyve been giving me such trouble. They water constantly, everythings blurred, and the pain at night its unbearable. The local doctor said I need surgery straight away, or Ill go blind. I dont know how to manage it all alone, but I suppose kind people will help me find my way.”
“Of course, love, of course you must go!” Mary fussed, shuffling in her worn slippers. “Ill look after your placeyour goat Daisy, your chickens, everything! Dont you worry. Youre rightno one should face blindness alone.”
Antonia was well past seventy. Life had been long and hard, tossing her about like a wounded bird until shed found refuge in this quiet village, in a cottage left by long-gone relatives. The journey to the city felt endless. Clutching her worn handbag in the bumpy bus, her mind spiralled with fear.
*”A knife near my eyes? How can I bear it? The doctor said its simple, but my heart wont stop aching. Oh, Im so frightened.”*
The hospital ward was clean, smelling of antiseptic and quiet. A younger woman lay by the window, and opposite her, another elderly patient like Toni. The company eased her nerves slightly. At lunchtime, visitors arrivedhusbands, children, grandchildren, filling the room with chatter and laughter. No one came for her. She turned to the wall, wiping away a bitter tear. She was alone. Forgotten.
The next morning, the doctor on rounds enteredVeronica Peterson, young, composed, her voice warm.
“How are we feeling, Antonia? Keeping your spirits up?”
“Mustnt grumble, dear,” Toni replied. “Tell me, what should I call you?”
“Veronica. Now, is there anyone we should notify? Family?”
Tonis heart clenched. “No, love. No one. The good Lord never gave me children.”
The lie burned her insides. She *had* a daughterher precious Violet.
Years ago, as a young widow, shed met Peter, a war veteran missing an arm. Theyd married, had a daughter, and then Peter fell ill. After his death, she struggled alone until Nicholas, a smooth-talking city man, swept her off her feet. Hed promised her the world if she left her little girl with her mother and followed him. Foolishly, she had.
Letters home grew fewer, then stopped. Nicholas drank, turned cruel. When he died in a brawl, she returnedonly to find her mother gone, her daughter vanished. Shed lived with the guilt ever since.
The night before surgery, she couldnt sleep. Veronica reassured her, but an odd thought niggled*”My Violets name was Peterson too And her eyesso familiar Could it be?”*
After the operation, bandages covered Tonis eyes. Blind and terrified, she startled when someone unwrapped them. Light returned. The surgeon declared it a success. Later, a nurse placed a bag by her bedapples, tea, sweets. “From Dr. Veronica. Shes off today.”
Two days later, Veronica returned, holding an envelope.
“Good evening, Mum,” she whispered.
Toni froze.
“Im your daughter. Your Violet. Ive been looking for you for so long.” She clasped Tonis hands. “When I saw your records, I *knew*. My husband arranged a testits official. Youre my mother.”
Trembling, Toni clung to her. “Forgive me, my girl. I was a fool. How did you manage?”
“Grandma loved me. I became a doctor, married Matthew. We have two childrenyour grandchildren. Youre coming home with us.”
That night, Toni wept with joy. Shed been forgiven.
Her son-in-law, a kind cardiologist, drove them to the village to collect her things. She gifted Daisy to Mary, who cried happy tearsnot just for the goat, but for Toni, now whole, loved, and finally home.
