do you want to hold him?
it would be rude to refuse the offer, and in her core, Eileen adores children. she had such a wonderful time looking after her siblings younger and older, so it feels natural, as if the world is right for a time. but she knows the truth, her reality is that she is the last one from her family, much like the woman before her. they had both suffered loss after loss. they carried graveyards on their backs, and their souls contained the crypts. and yet, as she takes the bundled babe, she feels light. their families will live on beyond them, their deaths wouldn’t be in vain. their names would never be forgotten. placing a thin hand on the baby’s chest she looks into his eyes. those deep umber eyes that reminded her of home. it was a shame however, that the boy look more Rhee than Greene, perhaps as he grows she will come through him as well. but for now, she looks at the face of her brother’s baby, and only sees Glenn himself. and she remembers how she had held him so very long ago. her hands were smaller, her future bright && prosperous all of it shattered and ripped from her very hands. she remembers his first steps, his first words, she had been there for it all. his whole life, she was the one who had helped him the most. had encouraged him when their father got too rough on him. it isn’t until she inhales that she realizes her vision has blurred. in her revery her emotions were allowed to come forth, making her lips quiver before the sight of the infant.
looking up at the woman, her only sister now she manages a heartbreaking smile. “ he is amazing. you did a great job. ” she doesn’t think it appropriate to even mention how he looks like him, or her own father. she supposes the other woman knows, understands. where there is death, there must also be life. and holding her nephew in her arms makes that clearer to her than ever before. he makes it easier to face this world, makes everything so much more simple. this baby, more than any of them must survive. “ what are you going to call him? ”