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Some time ago…
Life was going well for the Maitlands. Barbara’s garden was thriving, Adam kept busy with restoring antiques he’d stumbled upon, and they both kept busy with renovations of their recently purchased house. Their ten year plan was coming to fruition. House with a nice yard? Check. A minivan? Double check. The next step in the plan was a baby. They had been trying for so long and were thinking about putting a pin in that part of the plan when two pink lines had finally graced the three pregnancy tests Barbara took just to make sure she was definitely pregnant. They were ecstatic and immediately began preparations for their newest member. There was still so much to do with the house, some of which was set aside so they could begin preparations for Baby’s room. Was this a little premature on their part? Yes, probably. Especially since the baby would be sleeping in their room for a while after birth, but they wanted to get a jump on things before the sleepless nights would begin after their arrival.
Several weeks later, Barbara was in the beginning of the second trimester of her pregnancy and everything had been going well at first, but just a few weeks before she would reach the halfway mark, she’d noticed some spotting. It wasn’t much at first, so she did her best not to be too worried about it. A couple days later, the cramping started. Nothing too bad at first, but everything spiraled from there. Adam returned from a trip to the hardware store to find his wife doubled over the kitchen sink, tears streaming down her face, a single trickle of blood dripping down her leg. He dropped the bag of sandpaper and wood conditioner and rushed to her side. Their worst fear was confirmed after he rushed her to the hospital…Barbara had suffered a miscarriage.
Many tears were shed between the two of them over the next several days. Barbara couldn’t bring herself to work in the garden, and Adam couldn’t bring himself to work on home renovations or refurbishing some stuff he had. The wood conditioner and sandpaper sat unused in the bag beside an empty crib, sitting in the living room, where Adam had intended to work on it.
“They would have loved this…” Barbara ran her hand along the rail of the little wooden cradle, tears welling in her eyes.
Adam nodded as he took her into his arms, rubbing her back as they embraced, “Yeah. They really would’ve.”
He did his best to stay strong in this moment, but couldn’t stop the tears, letting them fall as he closed his eyes. They spent many moments like this, comforting each other wherever they were, talking about their baby and how loved they would have been.
“Are you sure you feel up to helping with this, hon?” Adam pulled away and looked at the crib, “I could always see if Howard or Howard Jr. would be able to help me move it.”
“No, it’s okay. I want to help…I think it’s something we should do together.”
Adam nodded in response, giving her another look as they stood at opposite ends of the crib. Barbara nodded, reassuring him that she wanted to help and was ready. The two of them lifted each end and carefully brought it all the way up to the attic, where they carefully set it in the center, the light from a lightbulb shining upon the piece of furniture. The two of them stood, looking at it for what felt like hours. Minutes had been feeling that way for a while now.
“Y’know, hon…we could always try again.” Adam said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, lovingly stroking it in an attempt to comfort her.
Barbara nodded, resting a hand on his, her head resting against his shoulder, “...not yet.”
He kissed the top of her head and released Barbara from his embrace, following her to the door of the attic. He turned back one last time to look at the crib, “Not yet.”
And with that, Adam turned the light off and shut the door behind him.
Present Day
Lydia Deetz woke when a ray of sunlight shone across her face through the blinds. She sat up and stretched before looking at the time on her phone. 11:30 am. Everyone must’ve decided to let her have some space for today, which was a day she had been dreading for a while now. The first Mother’s Day without her mom. Things had gotten better since her passing, her dad kept his promise to talk about her any time Lydia wanted. Telling stories about Emily and looking through old photos helped a lot on the days she missed her most, even if it wasn’t the same as having her here on the dark days. Lydia sighed as she slipped on some socks. Might as well face the day. She trudged to the bathroom to brush her teeth before heading down to the kitchen, finding Barbara sitting at the table.
The ghost looked up when she heard the girl enter and smiled softly, “Morning, sleepy head. You missed breakfast. I saved you a plate, though. It’s in the microwave. There’s a little coffee left, too.”
“Thanks... I don’t really feel like eating at the moment.” Lydia said, pouring a cup of coffee, “I’ll eat it for lunch or something.”
Barbara nodded, patting Lydia’s shoulder as she sat down and nursed her cup of coffee.
“You’re pretty quiet today.” Lydia noted after they sat in silence for a bit.
“Oh, it’s… It’s just a rough day.” Barbara replied.
“...You wanna talk about it?” Lydia asked, setting her mug down.
“Oh no, it’s okay, I don’t want to bring you down even more than-”
“No. You and Adam were a big help to me when we first moved in. I won’t make you talk about it if you really don’t want to, but…you always say that talking helps.”
Barbara was quiet for a moment before nodding, “You’re right. Well…this would have been my first Mother’s Day. Six months before Adam and I died…we were expecting a baby, but…”
Lydia realized where this was going and hugged the ghost, who returned the hug, “I’m so sorry...”
“Thank you for listening. Adam and I talk about them sometimes, we just never…”
“Yeah, it’s hard to talk about loss with others.” Lydia took another sip from her coffee before continuing on, “You know, you’ve been a lot like a mom to me. I know it’s not really the same thing, but…it can still be your first Mother’s Day.”
Barbara smiled softly, “Well, Adam and I have always thought of you as the daughter we didn’t have.”
Lydia also smiled, “Happy Mother’s Day, Barbara.”
A little bit later, Lydia rode her bike through the small town they lived on the edge of. She promised to not be out too long, and she hadn’t been, but she was in a rush to get to a shop before it closed. They lived just outside of a small town, and in typical small town fashion, a lot of shops either close early or are closed on Sundays. She luckily got to the shop about an hour and a half before it closed and managed to pick up the perfect gift for Delia. They may not always see eye to eye, but she had to admit her future stepmother had grown on her a little, especially after everything that happened when they first moved into the house.
“I’m back!” the girl called as she closed the front door behind her.
“Hey, pumpkin. Glad to see you’re home safe.” Charles said, looking up from a box he was rummaging through.
“Hey, Dad. Where’s Delia?”
“That…is a good question. She was meditating upstairs, but I don’t know if she still is.”
“Okay, thanks, I’ll find her.” Lydia said, stopping as she was about to go up to do so, “What’re you doing?”
“Oh, just going through some stuff, getting something set up.” Charles replied, once again rummaging through the box. “You’ll see in a little bit.”
Lydia nodded and continued up the stairs, walking through the halls for a bit before finding Delia in her father’s office, arranging some crystals.
“Hey Delia, I got something for you.” Lydia reached into her backpack, “What’re you-?”
“Oh, just arranging these crystals. They’re to help your father relax when he’s in here working.” Delia sat the last crystal she had in her hand on the desk, “What’ve you got?”
Lydia pulled out a little box and handed it to the woman, “I wanted to get you something.”
“Awww, Lydia, you didn’t have to.” The woman opened the little box and gasped as she pulled out a necklace with a crystal on it.
“It’s amethyst, I think. I remembered you saying something about it being a shield against negativity or…something like that and thought you’d like it.”
“I love it, thank you so much!” The woman pulled the girl into a tight hug.
“You’re welcome.” Lydia replied, a little strained, “Delia…choking…can’t breathe!”
Delia giggled as she released Lydia from the hug.
“Happy Mother’s Day.” Lydia said with a slight smile.
“...Can I hug you again?” Delia asked after putting the necklace on.
“As long as you let me breathe.”
Later that evening, after having some takeout from one of Delia’s favorite restaurants, Charles called Lydia into the living room. When she entered the room, she found the table now had photo albums spread out on the coffee table.
“I thought maybe you’d like to take a walk down memory lane with me.” Charles said as she thumbed through the photos. “And that’s not all, I found some of our old home movies too.”
Lydia looked up at her father, tears welling in her eyes. She nodded and sat on the couch with him. They talked about Emily a lot, but they hadn’t really gone through the photo albums or watched home videos much at all since her passing. They were later joined by Adam, Barbara, and Delia, who all enjoyed hearing stories about certain photos and watching the home movies. The day still wasn’t quite the same for Lydia, but she had to admit the day went better than she had expected it to. They had each other, and that was all that mattered in the end.