Three months after my mom\u2019s funeral, my dad married her sister.<\/p>\n
I told myself grief makes people do strange things. I repeated it like a mantra, like something learned in therapy or overheard at a support group. I clung to it because the alternative felt unbearable.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t think anything could hurt more than watching my mom die.<\/p>\n
I was wrong.<\/p>\n
She fought breast cancer for almost three years. By the end, she barely had the strength to sit up, but she still worried about everyone else. She asked if I\u2019d eaten, if my brother Robert was keeping up with his bills, if Dad remembered his blood pressure medication.<\/p>\n
Even while dying, she was parenting.<\/p>\n
After we buried her, the house smelled like antiseptic and her lavender lotion. Her coat still hung by the door. Her slippers were half-hidden under the couch. People kept repeating the same hollow comforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s not in pain anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was so strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTime will help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Time didn\u2019t help. It just made the silence louder.<\/p>\n
Three months later, Dad asked Robert and me to come over \u201cjust to talk.\u201d His voice sounded careful, rehearsed.<\/p>\n
When we walked into the living room, everything looked frozen in place, like Mom might walk in at any moment. My aunt Laura was sitting beside him. Mom\u2019s younger sister. Hands folded tightly. Eyes red, but not freshly cried.<\/p>\n
I remember thinking, Why is she here?<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be honest with you,\u201d Dad said. \u201cI don\u2019t want secrets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dog
\n\u201cWe\u2019re together,\u201d he said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t plan it. Grief just\u2026 brought us close.\u201d<\/p>\n
My brother stood up immediately. \u201cYou\u2019re saying this three months after Mom died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know how it sounds,\u201d Dad replied. \u201cBut life is short.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sentence burned. Life hadn\u2019t been short for Mom. It had been stolen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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