When We Were 19, My Best Friend and I Pr0mised That If We Were Both Single at 60, We’d Find Each 0ther – I Turned 60 Last Tuesday, and My Old Landline Rang

Jeffrey lay in the hospital bed.

He was thinner than I remembered.

His hair was white now, and time had changed almost every feature of his face.

But somehow, he was still unmistakably Jeffrey.

His eyes found mine immediately.

“Ruthie.”

My throat tightened.

Then I noticed something sitting on the chair beside his bed.

A wooden box.

The second I recognized it, I stopped breathing.