Between You and Me

Dedication

This story is dedicated to my grandmother, Mildred.

Though this story is totally fiction, I came up with the idea when I was a teen, over thirty years ago. I imagined what would happen if my grandmother passed and left me her house. It's kind of weird thinking I "dreamed" of her passing so early...she went on to live thirty-plus more years and passed in 2017 at the ripe age of 93. She lived a good long life, I say. Most things in this book of her are fictionalized, but it is true she was the only grandparent I really knew.

I am using her real house but redesigned a bit for the story. Her street, the neighborhood, all important to the story. Look up The Ville neighborhood in St. Louis. It's the neighborhood I was born, but not raised. Some of the names of people have not been changed, especially the ones I wanted to honor. (My Uncle Billy passed a month after my grandmother, though he has not passed for this story)

As always, if you read most of my work, it is "so St. Louis," but I always try to show different angles of my city. I believe this is my first from the inner hood, north city. Most of my other stories show the glamorous side of St. Louis.

My grandmother's big, red brick house is still there...though thankfully I did not inherit it, because I would have truly needed a live-in handyman for the repairs 😩. But the memories I have of that house now will be immortalized in this book.

I miss you, grandma!

And shoutout to RoseTee3 for the title. It rocks!