After Losing Her Husband, a Woman Learned from a Nurse That Another Woman Had Been Visiting Him for Several Weeks – A Few Days Later, the Visitor Came to Her House and Said, ‘So You Don’t Know What He Left You, Do You?’

table.

That was how we survived those months.

I organized everything.

Jack made jokes.

And neither of us said the thing we were both thinking.

That he might not survive.

During the final months of his illness, Jack started disappearing.

Not constantly.

But enough that I noticed.

“Where were you?”

“Out.”

“For three hours?”

“I needed air.”

“You can barely make it through Target.”

“I’m fine.”

“What’s in your jacket?”

“Nothing.”

“Those are papers.”

He gave me the look he always used when he knew I was about to interrogate him.

“Claire.”

“And you were on your laptop at two this morning.”

He leaned forward and kissed my forehead.

“Please don’t interrogate the dying man.”

“I hate when you joke like that.”

“I know.”

I looked at the papers again.

“Whatever you’re doing, you can tell me.”

His expression changed.

“I wish I could.”

“Then tell me.”

He glanced down.

“