The Goodbye I Never Got

A widow reflects on the future that vanished the day her husband didn’t come home:

Tony,

It is eight years since that day when you were suddenly and traumatically taken from us.  I remember that day, the knock on the door, the disbelief, the realisation you were not coming home, as if it were yesterday, I have relived it many times.

Your life cruelly taken when we had so many plans.  A time when working lives had ended and we had stepped into retirement; the future was ours to enjoy.  And, then in an instant, you were gone.  I couldn’t say goodbye.  Life we had known was gone forever; there was no future, just a black hole.

I mourn the life you should have lived, the grandchildren who never knew you, the life we should have shared together.  Now, I tread another path, different, but I can smile again and the future is not quite so bleak.

Dear Tony, I love you and miss you every day.