Easter Sunday
Kent’s wife had not been much more than an acquaintance to Julia before Sunday. Now, as she had a chance to talk with Carly, she could understand why Kent had loved her, why they had been such a perfect couple.
Julia had met Kent five years ago and from that first meeting, it was clear they would become good friends. She had thought, on more than one occasion, that if it hadn’t been for Carly, she and Kent would have been so much more than friends. She even entertained the thought that things might change in the future. She was ashamed of those thoughts now. Ashamed of the envy she had felt towards Carly over the past few years.
The news of Kent’s death just five months earlier was a shock. It was still a shock and no one who knew him had really absorbed it just yet. Kent loved life and lived it to it’s fullest, always surrounded by friends and up for anything and everything. Collapsing, just after returning home from a skiing weekend, he was gone before the ambulance could get him to the hospital. He was just shy of his fiftieth birthday.
This was the first opportunity Julia had had to speak to Carly since Kent’s sudden departure. She had sent flowers and a sympathy card, but in person she had no idea what to say and so they sat and talked of other things. She admired Carly’s ability to look forward, filling her time after work with evening classes and planning a trip to the Galapagos Islands in the fall. Carly’s grief was palpable, even in her smiles and talk of the future. Julia realized that she was actually beginning to like the woman who had been married to Kent for twenty five years.
Kent had been the love of Carly’s life, they had raised two children together and now the children were young adults and had left home. This would have been the time for them to spend together, alone, as when they were first married. Now not to be.
For Julia it was different. Her husband had left her. She had not experienced the joy in her marriage, as Carly and Kent had, there was no partnership, they hadn’t traveled or enjoyed life together and had no plans for the future. The void in her life had been there before he walked out. The loss, once she got over the shock, was minimal.
But here they both were, neither one having anticipated that they would be without partners at this stage of their life.
They were silent for a while, munching on heavily frosted, colorful cupcakes garnished with Peeps bunnies, watching the children hunting for Easter eggs. How much happier she and Carly would have been on this occasion if Kent were still alive. He should have been there.
Without even thinking of what she said, until she saw the horror on Carly’s face, she uttered “what a shame it wasn’t my husband who dropped dead, instead of yours”.