What Holds Us Together: Meet Lily

Portraits from Holding On: Love, Loss, and the Spaces Between

Meet Lily.

You don’t hear much from Lily in the early chapters of Holding On.
But her presence? You feel it. In the quiet moments. In the space between words. In the way everyone else shifts when she enters—or doesn’t.

She’s in the room even when she isn’t.

At first, I thought Lily would be a background figure. What I didn’t understand yet was how much grace can shape a story. How much stillness can anchor a family.

She’s not gone. But she’s slipping further from reach.

And what she’s given them—what she still gives them—is the kind of love that lingers.

Lily Jackson

69. Retired schoolteacher. Matriarch. Keeper of calm.

Appearance

5'4", her body made smaller by illness, but never small.
Silver hair kept neatly. Blue eyes that once missed nothing.
Even now, there’s something composed in the way she rests.

Personality

Gentle. Perceptive. Steady.
The quiet gravity holding the others in orbit.
She has always been more about presence than performance—about listening, noticing, making space.

Backstory

Raised in Derbyshire, where she learned to teach with warmth and wit.
Her life with Ralph was one of quiet joys and deep trust—rituals, routines, love that didn’t need to announce itself.
She raised Rachel and David in a house full of books, stories, and quiet strength. Not a perfect mother—but a grounding one.

Relationships

Ralph (husband) – Her partner in every sense. Their intimacy was often wordless.
Rachel (daughter) – A closeness shaped by understanding more than explanation.
David (son) – She’s always seen beneath the surface—loved him not in spite of his rough edges, but with awareness of them.
Emma & Liam (grandchildren) – Her joy. Her future. Her echo.

The Heart of Her Story

Lily is still here. But she’s changing shape in the narrative—from voice to memory, from mother to myth.
She reminds us that not every goodbye is spoken.
That sometimes love isn’t loud.
And that holding on can look a lot like letting go.

This is Lily.
And Holding On is, in so many ways, a story made possible by her quiet strength.