No one expected Ray to go so soon. He’d been battling illness for years, but he was the kind of man you thought would stubbornly outlive everyone just out of spite. My cousin Mara took it the hardest. Uncle Ray had raised her after her mother vanished and her father overdosed. He gave her everything — clothes, school, shelter. He even co-signed the loan that kept her small flower shop alive.
But kindness has limits. When Ray passed away late one Friday night in his sleep, Mara didn’t call anyone. She sat beside him on the old corduroy couch, staring at the blank TV screen, breathing in the quiet weight of grief… and debt.
Ray’s social security check had just hit the account. Rent was due Monday. She had no money left, the flower shop was barely surviving, and the electricity had already been shut off twice that month.…