Patricia’s supervised status remained in place a little longer, at Susan’s recommendation, but even there, small signs of change had begun to show. She sent a card for Lily’s school art show. She did not attend, per the current order, but she sent it, and inside she had written, simply, I’m proud of you, sweet girl. Love, Grandma — no mention of me, no undertone, just an ordinary grandmother’s sentence. It was such a small thing. It should not have made me cry in my kitchen, holding a seven-year-old’s watercolor painting of a dinosaur wearing a birthday hat, but it did.
Judge Hanley reviewed the file with the same careful, unhurried attention he’d given it the first time. “This is exactly the trajectory I was hoping to see,” he said, closing the folder. “I’m going to lift the supervision requirement for the father’s visitation, effective immediately, and continue the grandmother’s supervised status for another sixty days, with a check-in from Ms. Bell rather than a full hearing, assuming the current progress continues.”
