Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and spring is almost here. By the calendar, anyway. Life moves to its own rhythms but some things are eternal. Let this challenge image help you shake off all things winter and begin anew.
I’ll start with a story …
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“Francesca!”
So handsome! He smiles, touching my cheek, familiar and thrilling. Husband, father of my children, I still blush like a young bride, never the plain “Fran” to him.
You were just in the next room, darling, but how I have missed you!
Gently, he pulls me up. There’s a moment of vertigo, but he wraps my arm around his, steadying me, stepping me toward the door.
One brief moment, I glance behind and see an old woman, the shell that once held me.
I smile up at him as light spills from the door, eager for the next chapter.
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Now, it’s your turn.
featured image by MabelAmber Pixaby CC0 license
Andrew says: My mother-in-law called me Rue. We used to sit on that bench and watch the birds and contemplate what had happened to us. One day she said “Rue, I’ve become a burden. You need to get re-married. I’m going back to my original country. I still know people there.”
When I first met her, she was already a widow. She had come here as an adult and barely spoke the language. But we hit it off so completely. I thought: “This is my family.”
I soon married the elder son, but both sons died in a car accident a year after the marriage. Now we were both widows and she was all I had.
I replied: “Look, if you’re going somewhere then I’m going also. I’ll move to your country with you! Your people will also be my people. After all,” I added, “I can re-marry there.”
Stephen Miller says: She was nearly around the bend in the path when I heard the voice in my ear again. “Mister Kincaid, are you certain this is what you want? I only have ninety seconds to reset the simulation.”
I looked up as she walked back into view, and felt my heart in my throat. Fifty-seven years we’d been together that day. We had raised two fine sons and a daughter who was probably smarter than I could ever hope to be.
Emma settled next to me on the bench and I found my voice. “There’s nowhere else I’d want to be.”
We have faced the world together for over thirty years. We will forge ahead, even though you are leaving me. The Long Good-Bye: unexplained car dents, misplaced purse, confused driving, inability to count money, forgetting names, conversations, meal times, and the day of the week. Came the tests, the definitive diagnosis, the unread books, and the incessant television-watching. You shun exercise and sleep more. Amyloid plaque relentlessly pulses through your brain. We may lose the war, but there are many battles ahead to win. I promise a glorious fight. I have you with me—that is victory enough.
guinspen 
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