After Losing Her Husband, a Woman Learned from a Nurse That Another Woman Had Been Visiting Him for Several Weeks – A Few Days Later, the Visitor Came to Her House and Said, ‘So You Don’t Know What He Left You, Do You?’

“I wish I could.”

He looked down at the papers. “You already have enough to carry.”

“That’s not your decision.”

“It should be sometimes.”

“It means if someone needed help tomorrow, you’d forget to ask whether you could afford to give it.”

“That sounds like a compliment.”

“It scares me.”

“Why?”

“Because you never know when to let someone else be the problem.”

I thought he deserved one corner of his life where cancer – and I – weren’t watching him.

That decision became the first thing I regretted after he died.

***

Five weeks later, he got much worse.

I held his hand.

“You look scared,” he whispered.

“I’m allowed.”

“So am I.”

He almost smiled. “You’ll be okay.”