Gemotions

The letter was tucked inside a faded, floral-print cookbook. Sarah’s fingers, normally steady, felt clumsy as she unfolded it. It was her grandmother’s resignation from the hospital, penned back in the fifties.

Sarah had always thought of her grandmother as a pillar of the community, a saint. The letter, however, revealed a different reality. It described the rampant sexism, the undercurrents of professional resentment, the constant feeling of being undervalued and ignored.

Sarah’s world seemed to tilt slightly. She sat heavily in the kitchen chair, the scent of lavender from the old cookbook suddenly overwhelming. The woman she knew was gone, and replaced by a stranger she was only beginning to know.