15 years - What Have I Learned?
15 years. On a bright, cold but clear February morning in 2006 at about 7:30am, her breath, her eye movements, her body ceased. I could feel the warmth of her skin fading as her heart stopped. My wife of just 2.5 months, my best friend and companion of the previous 4+ years, had succumbed to metastatic breast cancer. Her body was wracked with pain and tumors that started in her breast and in the course of 14 months had spread to her spine, her liver, her brain. It all seemed like being in a hurricane. ---------- Just over 4 years earlier, I had met this incredible smart, pretty, graceful woman in a bookstore. We took in a movie, Lord of the Rings, that same afternoon; it went so well, we then shared dinner at a local Indian restaurant together across the street. We had a wonderful time that early December day, 2001, didn't want it to end, and vowed to meet again. We indeed did again around Christmas and also New Year's. ...