"Hi Marie," Sarah said cheerfully.
"Hey. Oh! Is this my little... cousin?"
Sarah giggled at Marie's need to stop and think.
"You feel more like a sister than an aunt to me," Marie defended.
"It's fine," Sarah smiled. "You feel like more than a sister than a niece to me. And yep, this is your cousin, Nadine Diana."
"Diana? Wasn't that Grandma's name?"
"Yeah. It occurred to me that no one has named a kid after her yet, and well, I really miss Mom. I thought it would be nice. And Jim doesn't mind because he lost his mom too, and her name," and here Sarah smiled, "is Nadine."
"So, you named her after your Moms?" Marie giggled.
"Yep. That's just the weird way it worked out," Sarah paused. "Marie? Is something wrong?"
At these soft-spoken words Marie burst into tears.
"Oh, oh Marie!" Sarah crooned, unable to reach out and hug her with the baby in her arms. "What happened?"
"Mick and I broke up."
"You broke up? You two?"
Marie nodded miserably.
"But why?" Sarah asked.
"I don't know! We just had this huge, stupid fight, and, and," Marie burst into another round of sobs.
"What on earth about? I don't remember you guys having a fight before."
"Neither do I! Oh, and I don't even remember exactly what the fight was about. We were just talking about collage and then suddenly, boom! And we've broken up."
"Collage?" Sarah repeated. "Don't you two have everything planned to go to the same one?"
"Yes," Marie nodded bitterly. "We were discussing living arrangements. Y'know get an apartment, stick with the dorms, blah, blah. It was all going so well... I just don't know."
"I'm sure you guys are going to work this out."
"I hope so, but..." Marie trailed off.
"It's going to be okay, Marie."
Marie just started crying more.
"Oh Marie..." then Sarah smiled. "If you stop crying I'll let you hold my baby."
Marie's tears turned into giggles and for a while neither knew if she was laughing or crying.