Keith

About 20 years ago my father-in-law died.  My mother-in-law was lonely after he was gone.  About three years went by, and she decided to make the 15 hour trip to visit relatives in Nova Scotia who she hadn't seen in awhile.   While she was there, she heard that Keith had also lost his wife a few years earlier.  He was her first boyfriend, when she was a teenager and spent her summers visiting her grandparents there.

That was in the fall.  A few months later, on Christmas Eve, Doris was home in New England, he was at his little house on the ocean in Nova Scotia.  They called each other to open the gifts they had mailed to one another.  He sent her an engagement ring.  She married him the next month, in a snowstorm.  Her six sons traveled through the snow to be there with her.  None of them had ever met him before.

After their wedding, they split their time between their two homes and families.  We grew to love Keith.  He was a simple guy- he had been a mechanic and loved fixing things.   A lot of things needed fixing in Doris' life, and he fixed them all and made her happy.  He loved his family, his house, full of crafts his daughters had made for him, doing carpentry, refinishing furniture, working in the yard, taking walks.  He had a Canadian accent and said certain words while inhaling.  He teased Doris all the time- she always laughed at him.

Yesterday afternoon he was thirsty and she got him a glass of juice, and one for herself.  They sat together and drank it.  She left him in the living room to go and sit in the kitchen with a friend who had stopped by to visit. When she went back to see if he wanted to join them, he was dead.

So, just like that, Keith is gone.  Kind of the way he came into our lives. Suddenly.   And quietly.  All the sons are heading back to Nova Scotia to say goodbye tomorrow and be with their mother.

Every time I said goodbye to him he told me he loved me.  I'm sad I'll never see him again.