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make any sense. When you find somebody, then he doesn’t even like you back, so what’s the use?”
    â€œYou’ll find somebody to like you back sooner or later.”
    â€œThat’s easy for you to say. You fell in love with Grandpa, and he fell in love with you, and there it was—all settled.”
    â€œIt wasn’t quite that easy,” she said. “I had my share of disappointments, too, before I settled down.”
    I had never heard Grandma say anything like that before, and I looked up at her, curious.
    â€œWhat do you mean?” I asked.
    â€œWell, Grandpa wasn’t quite what I would have planned for myself if I coulda had everything just my way,” she said.
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œThere was somebody else I liked a lot, too.”
    That amazed me. I had never thought of Grandma as having cared about any man but Grandpa.
    â€œYou mean you didn’t just meet him and say, ‘That’s Mr. Right’?”
    â€œWell, not quite.”
    â€œWhat happened?”
    â€œWell, when I was about sixteen my folks sent me to Des Moines to help out our Aunt Lizzie. She was ill and needed someone to help nurse her. I stayed there almost eighteen months, and while I was there I met Grandpa. We both sang in the church choir, and he was a real nice young man. We began to see each other, and after a while we got engaged.
    â€œWhen Aunt Lizzie passed on, I had to come back to my folks here, and Grandpa promised to sell his land in Des Moines and come out here and find a farm, and we’d be married. I had to wait for him for several months until he could arrange everything, and I started seeing an old school chum of mine named Tom Childers. Before I knew what happened, I was head over heels in love with Tom.”
    I was amazed. “Really?” I asked.
    â€œI guess I never knew what it felt like before,” said Grandma. “I thought the affection I felt for your grandpa was the best thing one could hope for. When I met Tom, I knew different.
    â€œBut your grandpa was selling his land and was on his way to Nebraska to marry me, and in those days—you know it was the 1890s—well, you just didn’t back down on an engagement after a man made that kind of promise to you. So I stopped seeing Tom, and when your grandpa arrived here, I never let on a thing, and I went ahead and married him.”
    â€œYou mean you married somebody you didn’t love and gave up the right person?” I asked, incredulous.
    â€œWell,” Grandma said thoughtfully, “I don’t know as there’s any one ‘right person’ for anybody. After Grandpa and I were married, I grew to love him. He was a fine man and a good husband, and I don’t think I coulda loved Tom any more than I did your grandpa after forty years of marriage. Who’s to say?”
    â€œBut whatever happened to Tom?” I asked.
    â€œOh, he moved away, and years later I heard he was married and had a family. I’m sure he was happy, too. I think there’s more than one person you could be happy with. You just have to choose the best you can and try and make it work. You’ll see; you’ll find somebody one of these days.”
    I thought about that for a moment and tried to imagine if Mr. Davenport might be the right person.
    â€œDad was ten years older than my mother, wasn’t he?” I asked.
    â€œYes,” said Grandma.
    â€œDid he think she was just a kid at first?”
    â€œWell, she was eighteen when they met, and out of high school,” Grandma answered.
    I wondered if Mr. Davenport would wait five years for me until I was older and out of high school. It all seemed hopeless.
    â€œI’m not going to the dance alone!” I said again.
    â€œNow, Addie,” said Grandma. “Some of the other boys are bound to ask you.”
    â€œWhat if they don’t?”
    â€œOf course they will,” she said. “And