There Will Be No Miracles Here: A Memoir

by Casey Gerald

I’ve been watching Granny for a long time. Have known so many women like her—well, not so many, but enough. And as I’ve watched I’ve grown suspect of all that strength they show. Granny still has the scar from when she fell out of a tree as a little girl and split her upper lip; still has the picture of her baby Janet lying in that tiny coffin with the lace around her wrists; still has her dead husband’s coats and some of his bills. And for all those years I was trying to move on, she still had her disappeared daughter’s papers and children—children who had gone off on their own and had done about the best they could, but who were still children, even if she was the only one who knew it. So she carried them, too. But one of these days, Granny and her kind might crack. They might pick up the last straw that must be right in front of their faces. And when they do, when all the Grannies have had enough, what is the world gonna do? Who’s gonna carry the cross and the children and wipe the tears of the old women? Will you be ready? Will I?