C: A Passing, A Gathering
I feel wistful. At age 68, I am now truly an orphan. My parents have been gone several years now, my father-in-law, too. This left my mother-in-law to reside next door to me, in her own little abode. She and I, single women out in the country, did well together. I would work too hard all day, usually stopping in to see her a few minutes before plopping down exhausted at my own home. Sometimes I would guiltily slink past her little trailer, too tired for conversation but knowing she had been alone all day and feeling I should have spared her that few minutes of companionship—selfish me. She has been gone a couple of weeks now and I have not yet felt any authentic mourning. I am not sure what that will look like, as I am a fairly stoic person, but I feel it looming around behind me as I go through each day, as if it will overtake at some unexpected moment. As I was shopping for groceries today, the thought of her absence came, pr...