By Lady Gray, March 6, 2018 — It has taken me a while and it may take a bit longer to get used to the term “widow.” In fact, there are days I still refer to my husband using the present tense, as in “he is” instead of “he was.”
I don’t think that it means I’m in denial. I had closure when we had the funeral and the military tribute at the cemetery. I think for me, it just means that there are times I still sense his presence. He used to tell me that the thing he like about me the most was that I used sarcasm like he cussed. He confessed that he found it fascinating to hear except when I directed it at him. He said the only time he found that intriguing was when we first met.
He said that he had never been told off so eloquently because usually “no” was just no and not a complete sentence. He told me that I took such care telling him to get lost that he just had to find out who this slick-tongued little woman was and besides, to quote him, “nobody tells me no when I want something.”
That was 1976 and this is 2018. If anybody had asked me if I thought I would have this man in my life for 41 years, I probably would have done exactly what he said I was good at—Said something sarcastic and kept it moving.