My Terminally Ill Wife Asked Me to Find My First Love as Her Final Wish – When I Learned Why, My Knees Nearly Gave Out

And thousands of ordinary evenings that I hadn’t understood were precious until they were suddenly behind us.

I looked at Carol’s face.

She had lost so much weight.

Her cheekbones were sharper now, and her once-thick brown hair had become thin and silver. Yet every so often, when she smiled, I could still see the woman who had walked into my life when I was young and lost and somehow made me believe I wasn’t destined to stay that way.

“Do you remember the porch swing?” I asked.

Her eyes fluttered open.

For a moment, she looked confused.

Then the smallest smile appeared.

“You painted it green.”

I smiled.