By Hannah Garcia
She sits bone-straight on a metal-backed bench, identical to the dozens scattered around the outlet mall, her husband sitting next to her. Her hands crackle with a nervous static, her foot bounces, impatiently counting the seconds.
A carousel sits in front of her, insensitively motionless, at odds with the drumroll her heart is knocking against her ribcage. Fair music flows out from an invisible source, but the merry-go-round does not move. The horses have no charges, a children’s ride missing children. A familiar feeling to Renee Johnson
A photograph, tucked with care in the folds of her wallet, show seven grandchildren. All but one smile at the camera, happy, healthy, but not quite whole.
“Nanny!” A long, happy yell sounds from a corner of the lot, and Johnson is off, running in heels, arms extended far in front of her.
As a little girl enters her embrace, she holds her granddaughter for the first time in eight years. Tight, in a grip that might never end.
Mending the Fractures
Laura Cox hasn’t seen her grandmother in almost a decade, the unfortunate result of a fractured family and bitter feelings, things a 10-year-old girl may not be equipped to understand.
She’s a fourth-grader at Foley Elementary. She loves to read and dance. She likes Justin Bieber and Li’l Wayne, like most 10-year-old girls probably do.
“I love listening to ‘Never Say Never’ and ‘How to Love,” she says. “I turn it up every time.”
For her grandmother, she’s a bright spot in an endlessly dark day, the first big step on a journey to mend a fractured family. During the whole reunion, a 1,000-watt smile never leaves her face.
“All this time, I’ve had the need to see her,” Johnson said. “There has always been the desire to see her.”
Laura also has a brother named Allan she has not seen since 2003, the result of their parents splitting eight years ago. Allan was four at the time, Laura was two.
“I feel like I’ve missed all the important years. I don’t really know what kind of life she’s had,” Johnson said.
After the rift in familial ties, Laura’s mother, Holly Cox, took custody of her, while her father took custody of her brother and moved to Tennessee.
Johnson, who lives in Friendsville, Tenn., began trying to track down her granddaughter after her son, Anthony Cox, died in a fatal vehicle accident in Knoxville in January.
“When you lose a child, everything kind of changes,” Johnson said. “I was trying to be a good mother, staying in the background. I feel like I can’t stay in the background anymore. Life’s too short. This is a child we’re talking about here. She’s didn’t do anything. She’s the innocent one.”
“She cries about her dad every day, every night. She misses her brother,” Cox said, who still carries a photo of Laura’s father in her wallet. “This is something that needed to happen a long time ago.”
Cox and Johnson have made plans to have Laura visit her grandparents in Tennessee in the next year. Johnson is hoping to see her two grandchildren reunited at Christmas.
In the meantime, Johnson hopes to continue strengthening familial bonds over phone lines. She and Laura have spoken every day for months before meeting.
“I’m just happy to see my nanny,” Laura said.
