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Posts : 5300 Join date : 2008-12-13 Age : 68 Location : Urs Buhler, The man of my dreams!! Humor : I found it and as always the joke is on me!!
| Subject: Urs and Catherine (By: Marie Humphrey) 4th Story Sat Sep 18, 2010 8:50 am | |
| EPILOG TO GOODBYE DARLING DIVO
The autumn day was glorious; this was my favorite time of year. The garden, resplendent in its last blaze of glory, had called me out of doors in the late afternoon. I sat on a low bench enjoying the lengthening rays of the sun and the warmed wisps of breeze. I was always a bit nostalgic on beautiful autumn days. I thought of that long ago weekend at the estate outside London. It was there that I had come face to face with the fact that….. I never saw the blow coming but surely something heavy had hit me because I lost my breath and fell forward from my seat—the pain—the pain—darkness—oblivion.
Slow awareness of life—the place was so deep and dark but I could sense movement around me—I must climb to the tiny pinpoint of light above—I was so tired—it was so difficult to breathe—progress was so slow but I was getting closer.
I couldn’t move my hands—there were sounds around me now—quietly whirring machines—soft voices—someone crying? The blackness lightened to gray—I had made the ascent—one final effort—my eyelids fluttered open. I heard someone say, “She’s waking up. Mom. Mom.” The twins were holding my hands. Kevin and Kyle, my beautiful sons—they brushed their eyes quickly, but not before I saw the tears. They reluctantly moved short distances so that medical attendants could do their checking. I heard the word “heart” and saw concerned nodding.
I looked at my sons. They had such worried looks on their faces. “You two are my greatest joy, I love you.” Why did so few words make me so tired? A movement at the foot of the bed drew my eyes that direction. Sue stood there—I knew she had been crying—her eyes were swollen and her nose red. She tried to appear bright, “Hey, are you being a Dramatic Diva again?” She squeezed my toes.
I tried to smile but that took so much effort! I slipped back into the gray world between waking and sleep. I lingered there—it seemed such a long time—waiting?—waiting? I felt my hand shifted from one person to another—I willed my eyes to open.
That beautiful face was before me once again, just as it had been when I opened my eyes on that morning so long ago. My wait had been rewarded. I mouthed the words, “I love you,” not knowing if I was heard or not.
Urs’ face bore our history; every emotion we have ever shared, every word we have ever spoken was written there. He leaned forward and those sweet lips whose taste I have never forgotten touched mine again. Those beautiful tresses fell across my cheek once more. I wanted to reach up to touch them but had not the strength. We could always read each other’s thoughts; he lifted my hand to his hair and cheek. I felt tears there as well. He put both hands around mine and brought it to his lips. I closed my eyes and let out my breath in a small sigh, a soft white mist enveloped me and I floated upward to the accompaniment of the most precious words, “I love you, Catherine. I love you, Cath…”
Urs stumbled up the steps and into the house. His little daughter came running, “Is Mrs. Catherine going to be alright, papa?”
“No, Cat, she isn’t.”
“Why don’t you go upstairs with Gran for a while, sweetie.” Urs’ wife saw that he was bereft and gathered him into her arms then led him to the sofa, sat beside him and drew his head onto her shoulder. “I know what she meant to you. I’ve known for years and it’s all right. She and I never spoke of it but we each understood that she had a part of you that I could never have and I have the place she could never fill. You loved us both and what each of us had of you did not rob the other; you cheated neither of us. I hoped you realized that when I gave our daughter her name.”
Urs looked at her, “Thank you.” He laid his head on her breast and sobbed. When the sobs subsided, he said, “I love you.”
“I know,” she said.
As she stroked his hair, he lay quietly and thought, “It’s only goodnight, my darling Catherine. I’ll see you in the morning…..” | |
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