Part 1:<\/p>\n
I believed saying goodbye to the man I had loved for most of my life would be the most painful thing I would ever endure.<\/p>\n
I was wrong.<\/p>\n
The true reason Thomas had returned to me was not revealed until after he was gone.<\/p>\n
Rain tapped gently against the window of my small rented apartment as I sat alone, stirring a cup of instant coffee that my budget could barely afford.<\/p>\n
At seventy-three, I had returned to the town I had left when I was seventeen. The buildings had changed, the shops had different names, and many familiar faces were gone.<\/p>\n
Yet somehow, the streets still remembered me.<\/p>\n
My pension was not enough to cover the rising rent and everyday expenses, so I had taken my old nursing badge from a drawer, bought a new uniform, and returned to work at the local hospital.<\/p>\n
It was the same profession I had retired from years earlier.<\/p>\n
Coming home was strange.<\/p>\n
Almost nothing looked the way I remembered, but everything carried the same feeling.<\/p>\n
I had never married.<\/p>\n
I had never had children.<\/p>\n
There had been a few relationships over the years and several kind men who had tried to build a life with me.<\/p>\n
But none of them had ever been Thomas.<\/p>\n
I had not spoken his name aloud in more than fifty years.<\/p>\n
Thomas had been my first love.<\/p>\n
We were both seventeen when we met, young enough to believe that promises could last forever simply because we meant them when we made them.<\/p>\n
I had earned a place at a college in another city.<\/p>\n
Thomas had chosen to remain in town and work at his father\u2019s hardware business.<\/p>\n
On the day I left, he stood beside me at the bus station with tears in his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease don\u2019t go, Nancy,\u201d he begged.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to,\u201d I told him. \u201cI worked too hard to give this opportunity up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you\u2019re breaking my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those were almost the last words he ever said to me.<\/p>\n
I boarded the bus, left town, and spent the next fifty-six years believing I would never see him again.<\/p>\n
The ringing telephone pulled me out of the memory.<\/p>\n
I knew who it was before I answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cNancy, it\u2019s Raymond,\u201d a cheerful voice said. \u201cI\u2019m checking on my favorite cousin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Favorite cousin.<\/p>\n
Raymond and I had barely spoken in thirty years.<\/p>\n
But ever since I returned to town, he had started calling nearly every week.<\/p>\n
His voice was always friendly, yet his questions made me uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow\u2019s the apartment?\u201d he asked. \u201cRent must be difficult on a pension.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m managing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you organized your paperwork? Your will? Your banking information? A woman living alone at your age needs to prepare for these things.\u201d<\/p>\n
I forced my voice to remain polite.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m fine, Raymond.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, I used to visit Aunt Margaret all the time before she died. I helped her handle her finances and personal affairs. Family should take care of family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Something about the way he said it made my coffee suddenly taste bitter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was kind of you,\u201d I replied. \u201cBut I have to get ready for work.\u201d<\/p>\n
I ended the call before he could ask anything else.<\/p>\n
The hospital smelled of disinfectant, medicine, and the quiet anxiety that seemed to live permanently inside its walls.<\/p>\n
That morning, I pushed my cart down the long hallway, checking room numbers and patient charts.<\/p>\n
I was already exhausted, and it was not even ten o\u2019clock.<\/p>\n
Room 220.<\/p>\n
A new patient had been admitted for long-term care.<\/p>\n
I opened the door, stepped inside, and glanced at the chart.<\/p>\n
The first name made me stop breathing.<\/p>\n
Thomas.<\/p>\n
Then I saw the surname beneath it.<\/p>\n
My hands tightened around the file.<\/p>\n
It could not be him.<\/p>\n
There had to be hundreds of men with that name.<\/p>\n
But when I raised my eyes toward the patient lying in the bed, I recognized him immediately.<\/p>\n
Fifty-six years had passed, but they had not erased the face I remembered.<\/p>\n
Thomas was thinner now.<\/p>\n
His skin was pale, and illness had left deep shadows beneath his eyes.<\/p>\n
Yet those eyes were still the same ones that had watched me board a bus all those years ago.<\/p>\n
He looked at me and smiled as though he had been expecting me.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello, Nancy,\u201d he said softly.<\/p>\n
For several seconds, I could not speak.<\/p>\n
I stood beside his bed holding a blood pressure cuff, feeling as if my entire life had followed me into that hospital room.<\/p>\n
\u201cThomas,\u201d I finally whispered. \u201cOh my goodness. Thomas.\u201d<\/p>\n
After that day, I found reasons to visit his room during every shift.<\/p>\n
Sometimes I checked his medication.<\/p>\n
Sometimes I brought him water.<\/p>\n
Sometimes I simply sat beside him after my duties were finished.<\/p>\n
Thomas told me he had never married.<\/p>\n
I confessed that I had not married either.<\/p>\n
We laughed about our gray hair, our aching knees, and the foolish dreams we had once shared.<\/p>\n
Other times, we sat in silence, comfortable in a way that made the lost decades between us feel smaller.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou still drink your coffee black?\u201d he asked one afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew you would.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was something unusual about his calmness.<\/p>\n
Many patients with serious illnesses were frightened, angry, or overwhelmed.<\/p>\n
Thomas seemed peaceful.<\/p>\n
He carried himself like someone who had been waiting a very long time for one final thing to happen.<\/p>\n
One morning, he asked me a careful question.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you have any family nearby, Nancy? Anyone helping you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly a distant cousin named Raymond. He has been calling more often since I moved back.\u201d<\/p>\n
For one brief moment, Thomas\u2019s expression changed.<\/p>\n
His jaw tightened.<\/p>\n
Then he relaxed and quickly changed the subject.<\/p>\n
I did not understand why at the time.<\/p>\n
That same week, Raymond\u2019s calls became even more persistent.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you seeing anyone?\u201d he asked. \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t be alone at your age.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m doing fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you made a will? Someone responsible should be listed in case something happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI told you, Raymond. I\u2019m fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
He asked which bank I used.<\/p>\n
He wanted to know whether I owned the apartment.<\/p>\n
He mentioned Aunt Margaret again, proudly describing how he had handled everything near the end of her life.<\/p>\n
I remembered that Margaret had died almost penniless in a rented room.<\/p>\n
For the first time, I wondered why that memory made me so uneasy.<\/p>\n
Still, I ignored my instincts.<\/p>\n
I had spent much of my life ignoring things that made me uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
Then, one afternoon, Thomas asked me to sit beside him.<\/p>\n
His hand found mine on top of the blanket.<\/p>\n
It felt light and cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cNancy,\u201d he said, \u201cI feel terrible asking this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our conversations had grown more affectionate with each passing day, but the seriousness in his voice frightened me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have loved you for my entire life.\u201d
\nPart 2:<\/p>\n
My breath caught.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I don\u2019t have much time left,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut there is one thing I always dreamed of doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked directly into my eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill you marry me?\u201d<\/p>\n
For several seconds, the room disappeared.<\/p>\n
Fifty-six years of questions, regrets, and imagined possibilities seemed to gather between us.<\/p>\n
Part of me heard Raymond\u2019s voice warning me that I was being foolish.<\/p>\n
But another voice\u2014the voice of the seventeen-year-old girl I had once been\u2014told me not to walk away again.<\/p>\n
Thomas had advanced cancer.<\/p>\n
He knew he was dying.<\/p>\n
This was his final wish.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n
Tears filled his eyes.<\/p>\n
Mine did too.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, Thomas. I\u2019ll marry you.\u201d<\/p>\n
He squeezed my hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou won\u2019t regret it, Nancy. I promise you that.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was something unusual in the way he said those words.<\/p>\n
It sounded less like reassurance and more like a carefully planned vow.<\/p>\n
At the time, I believed he was only talking about our marriage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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