The way she dismissed Grandma’s memory made me sick.

Then she replaced the curtains—Grandma’s handmade floral ones—with bland beige panels.

“Better this way,” Linda said. “Fits my style.”

Granddad just sat silently in his recliner, staring out the window. He never objected. That’s who he is—the gentlest man alive, someone who apologizes if you bump into him. Even as his home was stripped of warmth, he carried his grief quietly, like a heavy coat he couldn’t take off.

Then one September night, everything changed.

After visiting Grandma’s grave, as he always did on Sundays, he heard a faint cry by Miller’s Road. In the ditch, he found a tiny puppy with matted fur and a twisted leg, shivering and helpless.