Charlotte came to Alberta once, when I was first pregnant. Greg's dad was turning sixty, and they had a huge party for him. We brought our little presents with us, a baby bottle and a bottle of baby wash and wrapped them up and gave them to his parents and told them they were things they might need in the coming year. Everyone was just beside themselves. I danced my heart out at the party and worried people might think I looked fat. Most people didn't know the news yet, you see.
Now it has been ten and a half years, even more, since that day. We are back in Alberta for perhaps the eighth time since then, and on the table of our house here is a pink candle that Greg's mom purchased to sit on the table at the big family party she hosted last weekend. On a little scrap of construction paper, cut with scrapbooking scissors to look fancy, she wrote the words, "We remember Charlotte Amelia". I was touched and glad that in the context of a party that included everyone, my baby girl was not forgotten.