She used part of the money to catch up on rent and pay down Eli’s overdue medical bills. The rest, she put into a savings account — for Eli, and for the great-great-grandfather he never got to know, whose last act was trying to make sure his family would be taken care of, even if it took eighty years to reach them.
Eli wears the coat every winter now. Maria sewed the seam back up herself, careful and by hand, the same way Thomas once did.
Some inheritances aren’t about money. Some of them just take longer to arrive.
