This was the worst day of Johanna's life.

Her favorite...no, her only grandmother had passed away. Her GiGi was her favorite person in the world. She was her best friend and talked to her about any and everything. They were several generations apart, but they understood each other.

"I miss her so much!"

"Me too." Her older sister, Zee, was at her side, rubbing her back as they watched their grandmother for the last time as she lay in her casket.

Peacefully asleep, that's what she wanted to think her GiGi was doing.

"At least GiGi is with the rest of her family." Zee tried to comfort her with that.

Her GiGi Mildred, or Millie as most called her, lived a grand old life. Married young at eighteen, widowed young at forty-seven after having four children. Her father plus her two uncles and one aunt. Her oldest son died in a car wreck at seventeen. Of her seven siblings, she was the youngest and the last one left.

"I just wanted more time with her."

Yes, she was selfish. GiGi had a whole grand life, with her children and grandchildren. But to her, she was the one she could count on more than her father who was in and out of her life.

The rest of her father's side of the family, she had no close relationship. She was raised by her mother who never married her father. He stuck around long enough to have two daughters but not long enough to take care of them. Johanna and her sister Zee were around their father's side of the family only because of her grandmother.

Her GiGi made it a point to be in their lives, letting them stay over on the weekends once a month when they were younger and every weekend in their teen years. When she decided she wanted to attend college, it was her GiGi that helped her pay tuition her first year.

Then just like that, she was gone. Passed away from a sudden heart attack the week of her finals.

"You know you two were her favorites," her aunt Rita said, putting her arms around them both.

She wiped at her tears.

"Thanks, Aunt Rita," Zee said, who was the spitting image of their aunt. She looked more like her than their mother or father.

Johanna felt she was a mix of both her parents, with a petite frame like her grandmother. Small in stature at only five feet one, and slim with not many curves. She loved her body and never complained about it once. Other issues about herself she would change if she could.

"Come to the house for the repast. You know the whole neighborhood is going to put together a fix for us. They loved Ma like she was everyone's mother."

"I don't think I can eat anything..."

"You need to eat something, you look like skin and bones. What would your GiGi say?"

Johanna chuckled a bit through tears. "She would try and fatten me up." The funny thing, her GiGi was the same size as her all her life.

"I could eat," Zee said.

After everyone viewed her grandmother for the last time, next they headed to the burial. It would be at Jefferson Barracks in South County, far, far away from where her grandmother was born and raised in St. Louis' The Ville neighborhood.

To say she hated funerals would be putting it lightly. Not that she had gone to many. This was only her second one in her nineteen years. The first was her mother's uncle who she did not know very well when she was thirteen years old. So this one hit differently.

When they finally made it to the house she liked to call a mini-mansion, there was already a car-lined street down the block. GiGi Millie was loved by all, and she lived in the same house since her mid-twenties when she moved there with her husband.

Some neighbors were there manning the grill, and all the neighbors and their families from down the block and around the corner were there. Many people Johanna never met. Church ladies from the church on the corner, Greater Mt. Zion First Baptist were there with covered casserole pans. Food for days lined two long foldable tables.

"There's enough food to feed the whole Cardinals team." Zee was a big fan of sports. Johanna couldn't care less.

That gospel song about food came into her mind when she looked at the selection of food. "Beans, greens, potatoes...you name it!" Several different kinds of chicken: fried, baked, barbecued, and smoked. A pan of red hot links, a large spiraled ham, a whole deep-fried turkey, ribs, and hand-made burger patties were the meats. Too bad she was vegan and ate no meat.

The sides included mac n cheese, mostaccioli, pasta salad made with spaghetti and Italian dressing, corn, green beans with probably smoked turkey, and potato salad. She could eat none of that. She could not help it that she thought meat and meat side-products were gross. She had been a vegetarian ever since she was seven and realized what made up the meat her mother fed her. Soon after she was vegan.

"I'm about to go ham!" Zee grabbed two Styrofoam plates to load. The desserts alone would put everyone in a diabetic coma.

Diabetes ran on her mother's side, that's why she lost her maternal grandmother when she was four. She barely remembered her. GiGi Millie was the reason she was in college. GiGi Millie was the reason she was going to be a teacher.

"Listen, we all know you're veggie or whatever they call it," her aunt said beside her, "So I brought over meatless burgers and grilled corn for you. Didn't even add any butter."

"Auntie, you didn't have to-"

"You have to eat something."

She sure was hungry, so she went ahead and ate whatever she thought was safe. Her GiGi always teased her way of eating, but adapted to it and made her vegan meals when she was over. In fact, her mouth drooled thinking of the homemade fries her GiGi would make, or the vegan mac n cheese she mastered. Her GiGi would season and batter mushrooms that tasted better than chicken. She even figured out how to make vegan oxtails, or as they called it, "mocktails."

No more good food like that. She wished she would have asked her GiGi about those recipes while she was here. What was she going to do now?

All cried out, she sat with her family and ate while they discussed memories of her GiGi. Her father Larry was there but barely said much to her. Her uncle Richard also barely said anything to her. Her cousins were all younger than her and Zee. She was not that close with any of them.

She felt like without her GiGi she would lose touch with this side of her family. Her GiGi was the glue that bound them. Now she felt more alone. Her mother, who had done her best, worked like crazy and was barely home while they grew up. Many nights she and her sister spent all alone in their small apartment, and that's when they were seven and eight years old.

"You know your GiGi thought the world of you two girls." Her auntie had to repeat this again? It was only because they were her oldest grandkids. "And I already know she left you a great big fortune."

She nearly dropped her plate of food. A fortune? Her grandmother was not that rich, outside of owning her big house, her mortgage was paid. She was a retired English teacher from Sumner High School which was across the street. She lived a modest life, nothing fancy. She did not even drive. If she needed to go anywhere her children took her around.

Never even crossed her mind her grandmother would leave her money. If she had to choose her grandmother over money, she would choose her grandmother. No amount of money was worth her life.

She and her sister were on the struggle bus, living at home in a cramped two-bedroom apartment with their mother. She shared a bedroom with her sister all her life. Zee left home after she finished high school. Moved in with some friends, but that did not last long. She moved back in and decided to go to a trade school and learn a skill so she could make good money and move out on her own one day.

Johanna was on a small scholarship at UMSL, taking a minimum number of classes and commuting from home. Her grandmother paid for what the scholarship did not cover. Now she would have to get student loans.

After stuffing herself with food, and speaking to very few people, everyone was ushered off except immediate family. There was so much food left over "for the family" but there was not enough family to eat it all.

"So, some of you may know, I am the executor of Mother's will and trust." Her aunt, who was a lawyer gathered her two brothers, and Johanna and Zee, the only grandchildren over eighteen. "I will get to the point. Larry and Rich, Mom left us all a million dollars each from the trust Dad and her set up many years ago."

What? That was a lot of money. How did her GiGi get that amount of money? Did she save for a lifetime?

Her father nodded with a silly grin on his face. "I knew about the trust but didn't think it was that much. That's a nice goose egg."

"Well, they started it when each of us was born, put a few thousand in every year for as long as they worked, plus interest."

"Nice," her uncle Richard said. Money did not matter to him that much, he already made close to a million as an engineer at Boeing. He worked there so long he was there when it was McDonnell Douglas. He was married with three kids who were all spoiled brats.

"And I'm sure I get the house," her father said to Rita.

Aunt Rita threw her brother a smile. "Oh, you wish it was yours, huh? No, instead, she wanted your daughters to always have a permanent place to stay that was always home to them, even when you tried to push them away."

"I did not-" her father started to say.

"Argue with someone else big brother," Rita said. "You were never much of a father to those girls. If it were not for Mother, we would not have seen them the little we did."

She did not like hearing them fight, especially over her. Her father was not going to change suddenly. He barely paid child support for them over the years. Now that they were both over eighteen, he thought the parenting had ended.

"GiGi left us the house?" Zee asked.

That finally hit her as well. The house was huge and worth a lot if they sold it. Why would her grandmother do that?

"Yes, Zenevieva and Johanna, as her two favorites, she left you two the house. It is now in your name. As well as you and your cousins have trust funds set up in your name. Not as much, but they are decent. Your cousins can't receive theirs until they are eighteen. You guys will have immediate access to the funds."

This all was unreal to her. She lost her grandmother, now she owned a house at only nineteen.

Aunt Rita dangled a ring of keys in her hand. "You guys can move in whenever you are ready. We don't want to leave it empty for long."

She was ready for this big change in her life.