nancy is my age, exactly. she was my first married friend - her and Joe and Steve and I would go for a drink and a movie and no one made me feel like laughing like Nancy did. she is pretty and has a voice the flows like a river. her five kids are all in good relation to her, she is a matriarch of a kind, graceful and laughing, able to believe the best in every member of her family.
nancy has lived through her share of loss and disappointment. they came to her like they do to all of us, without a reserve plan and with the worst timing. she has made it through them all and kept a soaking rain of life falling on her family. sometimes that life came through hidden tears, sometimes through acres of laughter.
i just hung up the phone. her toxicology report is back. the spots on her pancreas are malignant. she can choose chemo to extend her life months, the doctor says. i didn't keep her long. she was exhausted. and brave. and beautiful.
Joe is beside her. he is her Steve. it hasn't been 33 years of endless romance, but it has been love that is the web around them.
nancy is a few thousand miles away. if i don't see you again, will you know that i love you?
1 comment:
Marilyn, she'll know. You love well, from across the room or thousands of miles.
Post a Comment