I adopted an elderly dog because I couldn’t stand the silence in my house anymore. Three weeks later, a stranger stopped me outside a grocery store, looked at her face, and asked a question that made me hold her tighter.
I’m seventy-one and retired. My wife, Margaret, died last year after a long illness. We were married for forty-six years.
Some people get used to being alone. I still listen for her footsteps in the hallway.
Our children live in other states. They call often but rarely visit. Even our youngest granddaughter, Lucy, eventually hands the phone back to her mother.
Now the television stays off, and nobody complains.
The hardest part is dinner.
Margaret and I used to argue about whether the evening news belonged on during meals. She wanted conversation. I wanted the weather report.
Now the television stays off, and nobody complains.
Some evenings, I sit beneath our family photographs, tracing Margaret’s face in our wedding picture.
Every morning, I pick up our wedding photograph and kiss her smiling face. At night, I do it again.
“Dad, have you thought about moving closer to us?”
“You should be here,” I tell her.
One Sunday, our son, David, called.
“Dad, have you thought about moving closer to us?”
“And leave your mother’s roses?”
“We could plant roses here.”
“They wouldn’t be hers.”
Afterward, I wandered the empty house. By Tuesday, I’d made my decision.
He went quiet.
“I worry about you.”
“I know, son.”
Afterward, I wandered the empty house. By Tuesday, I’d made my decision.
I drove to the county animal shelter.
A young volunteer named Hannah met me at the desk.
What happened next changed everything… FULL STORY on the next page.
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