He tried to calm Sunny, and while doing so, he accidentally knocked over his Grandma Rosemary’s urn from a nearby table, and his eyes noticed a locket nestled among the dirt.

Confused but curious, Hugo consulted Simon, who revealed that Rosemary had instructed him to put the locket in her urn, saying it was part of her past.

Intrigued, Hugo returned to the cottage and began to read his grandmother’s diary, which transported him to Rosemary’s childhood. Sunny sat beside him while he read, and Hugo couldn’t help but pat his head.

***

In the spring of 1949, a young Rosemary, playing by the rain, noticed a wealthy woman, Anna, and her son, Henry, arriving at the orphanage where she lived. She would later discover their family were big donors to the church that ran this group home.

Back then, she stealthily took Anna’s pretty red scarf but Henry caught her.

“Where’s my Mommy’s scarf?” Henry demanded as his mother was distracted from talking to other adults. Rosemary denied taking it, but he persisted, “Liar! You stole it. I saw you running with it. Give it back!”

Rosemary started to cry, which attracted Anna and a nun’s attention. “Hey, what’s the matter? Why are you crying?” the fancy woman asked.

“Mommy, she stole your scarf. I saw her running with it,” Henry accused.Anna empathized with Rosemary and gave her the scarf to keep. Rosemary poked her tongue out at Henry while he pouted and crossed his arms. But the animosity wouldn’t last long.

Surprisingly, Henry and Rosemary became best friends, thanks to that incident. But when they turned 18 and 17, Henry confessed his love and proposed to Rosemary, as he was about to leave for London.

“Rosie, will you be mine?” he asked. She hesitated, staring at the golden sand beneath them on their favorite beach.

“Henry, you’re my…friend! I’ve never seen you differently,” she said softly, the wind blowing in her hair.

He nodded. “Still, I’ll wait for you, Rosie. For as long as it takes!”

Henry left for London but he would send her love letters and a Teddy bear in the following months.Hugo turned the page on Rosemary’s diary but found it empty. The rest of the journal had nothing more except an unposted old envelope bearing the name ‘Henry’ with an address.

Hugo had to know the rest of their story, so he bought a new urn for Rosemary’s ashes and set off with Sunny–whom he had grown to love–to find Henry. “Sunny, old pal, looks like we’re in this together! Let’s uncover Grandma’s secrets, shall we?” he said.

After exhausting bus rides, hitchhikes, and motel stays, Hugo and Sunny arrived outside a huge mansion in the unfamiliar city where Henry supposedly lived.

However, an older man provided Hugo with the correct address. Arriving at a modest house with a rose garden in a coastal town only an hour away, Hugo found an elderly Henry.Before Hugo could utter a word, Henry’s gruff voice cut through the air. “You’re not getting any of my roses, you hear me? Get out of my property!” he barked.

Sunny got spooked and started barking, defending Hugo.

“Get outta here, or I’ll call the co –”

“I’m Rosemary’s grandson!” Hugo blurted, closing one eye as if expecting a blow.

The old man’s mouth popped open. “Ro-Rose-Rosemary’s…” Henry stuttered as his eyes watered. “Come in! Come in!”

Inside, Hugo noticed the house adorned with tchotchkes like the ones Rosemary loved. Henry invited him to sit on his mismatched chairs in front of a cozy fireplace. And Hugo explained the reason for his visit, showing Henry Rosemary’s diary, the love letters he had sent, and her unposted letter.He also told the old man how he learned about him. Sighing, Henry lamented, “Oh, Rosie, why didn’t you come back? Why did you leave me?” as he touched the mementos of their past.

Hugo then presented the locket with their pictures, prompting Henry to cry harder. “What happened after you left for London?” he asked.

The old man sniffed, and his voice was small and broken as he revealed that Rosemary had stopped writing to him. Upon returning from London, he was told she had moved away and didn’t love him.

Devastated, Henry lived a solitary life. “Rosie had taken my heart for eternity…just like she took that red scarf,” he said, retrieving a handkerchief from his pocket and wiping his face.He also said that when his parents died, he sold everything and moved to this lovely, tiny house, which was near the orphanage where Rosemary grew up. Henry didn’t know she had passed and cried more, the sound muffled by the handkerchief.

“Maybe your parents lied to you, Henry. Why would Grandma leave you when she genuinely loved you? Maybe they told her to stay away from you because she was poor,” Hugo suggested, tilting his head. “Do you know where I found this locket? In her urn.”

Hugo took the urn out of his backpack and showed it to Henry. “Your Rosemary hasn’t gone anywhere,” he said, touching the old man’s shoulder. “She’s right there in front of you…I think it’s time to say goodbye.”

Henry nodded, wiped his face with the handkerchief again, and led him to the beach nearby – his and Rosemary’s favorite spot. With the sounds of the waves and the seagulls, they scattered her ashes together.After another few days, Hugo returned to his regular life with Sunny by his side, but he wrote songs about his grandma, begging for her forgiveness and telling the world about her long-lost love with Henry.

It was his most successful work, and it felt like his apology to Rosemary for the awful kid he had been.

Henry died a year later, and Hugo scattered his ashes at the same beach. “Now, you can be together,” he whispered and sang one of his hits.

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