I thought saying goodbye to the love of my life would be the hardest thing I’d ever have to do. I had no idea that the real reason he came back into my life wouldn’t be revealed until after he was gone.PAY ATTENTION: Find it fast with our new search feature at Legit.ng! The rain tapped softly against the living room window of my little rented apartment, and I sat there stirring instant coffee I couldn’t really afford. At 73 years old, back in the town I’d left at 17, the streets outside still seemed to know my footsteps better than I did.
Source: OriginalMy pension hadn’t stretched far enough, so I’d pinned my old nursing badge onto a fresh uniform and gone right back to work at the local hospital. It was the same work I’d done before retiring.Funny thing about coming home. Nothing looked the same, but everything felt the same.I hadn’t married and never had children. There’d been dates over the years, a few kind men, but none of them ever became Thomas.PAY ATTENTION: From breaking news to viral moments.
Follow Legit.ng on Instagram!Thomas. I hadn’t said his name out loud in over 50 years.He was my first love, back when we were both 17 and thought forever was a promise you could just make. I chose a college in another city. He chose to stay and work in his father’s business.”Please don’t go, Nancy,” Thomas had begged me at the bus station.”I have to, babe.
I’ve worked too hard for this.”And that was the last time I ever saw him. Or so I believed.The phone rang, pulling me back into the present. I already knew who it was before I picked up.”Nancy, honey, it’s Raymond. Just checking in on my favorite cousin.”Favorite cousin.
We’d barely spoken in 30 years. But since I’d moved back, Raymond called almost every week, always cheerful, always circling the same questions. Source: Original”How’s the apartment treating you? Rent’s a killer at our age, isn’t it?” he said.”I’m managing, Raymond.””You got everything squared away?
Paperwork, will, that sort of thing? A woman living alone needs to be careful.”I forced a smile into my voice.”You know, I used to visit Aunt Margaret every week before she passed. Helped her with all her affairs. Family should look after each other, don’t you think?”Something about the way he said it made my coffee taste bitter.
I couldn’t put my finger on why.”That’s kind of you, Raymond. I have to run. My shift starts soon.”I hung up before he could stretch the call any longer.The hospital hallway smelled the way hospital hallways always do: of disinfectant and quiet human worry. I pushed my cart down the corridor, checking room numbers, tired already, and it wasn’t even 10 a.m.Room 220.
New admission. Long-term care. Source: OriginalI pushed the door open, stepped inside, and opened the chart the way I always did. My eyes skimmed the top line, then stopped.Thomas.I stared at the last name printed beneath it.
My mouth went dry. It couldn’t be. There had to be a thousand men with that name in this state alone.When I lifted my eyes to the man in the bed.I knew him the instant I looked up from the chart.Fifty-six years hadn’t erased that face. Thomas was thinner, paler, hollowed out by whatever was eating him from the inside, but those eyes were the same eyes that had begged me to stay when we were teenagers.He smiled as if he’d been waiting for me.”Hello, Nancy,” he said, as soft as a Sunday morning.I couldn’t speak for a moment.
I just stood there with the blood pressure cuff in my hand, feeling my whole life catch up to me in one hospital room. Source: Original”Thomas,” I finally managed. “My goodness. Thomas!”After that, I found reasons to check on him every shift.My high school sweetheart told me he’d never been married either.We laughed about our gray hair and our bad knees, and sometimes we didn’t talk at all.
We just sat together.”You still take your coffee black?” he asked one afternoon.”Still do.””I knew it.”There was something odd about how calm he was. Most patients in his condition were angry, scared, or numb. Thomas seemed almost peaceful, like a man who’d been holding his breath for a long time and could finally let it out. Source: OriginalOne morning, Thomas asked me, as carefully as a man stepping onto thin ice, “Do you have family nearby, Nancy?
Anyone looking in on you?”Thomas’s jaw tightened, just for a second. Then it relaxed, and he changed the subject to the weather.I didn’t think much of it at the time.Raymond’s calls got stranger that same week.”Are you seeing anyone, Nancy? At your age, you shouldn’t be alone. Family should have each other’s backs.””I’m fine, Raymond.””Have you thought about a will?
God forbid, but you know. Somebody responsible ought to be listed.””I said I’m fine.”He asked about my bank and the apartment. He mentioned Aunt Margaret again and how he’d “helped her with everything” at the end. I remembered Margaret dying alone in a rented room, and I couldn’t figure out why that sat so wrong in my stomach.I brushed it off.
I always brushed things off. That was my whole life in one sentence. Source: OriginalThen came the afternoon.Thomas asked me to sit down.His hand found mine on the blanket. It was cold and light as a bird.”Sweetheart,” he said, “I feel terrible asking you this.”By then, our conversations had become warmer with each passing day.”Ask.””I’ve loved you my entire life.
I know I’m going to die soon. But I’ve always dreamed of marrying you. Will you marry me? It’s my last wish.”I could barely breathe.
I couldn’t even blink.Fifty-six years of “what if,” and here it was, thin and dying in a hospital bed, asking me the one question I’d never let myself imagine.A voice in my head that sounded exactly like Raymond hissed, “Foolish old woman, don’t you dare!” Source: OriginalAnd another voice, the one I’d silenced at 17, said, “Say yes! For once in your life, say yes!”Thomas had stage 4 cancer. I decided I would grant his final wish.”Yes,” I whispered. “Thomas, yes.”His eyes filled with tears.
So did mine.”You won’t regret it,” he said. “I promise you that, Nancy. On my life, you won’t regret it.”I didn’t understand then why he’d said it like that, like a vow that meant more than the wedding itself.I only understood I’d just agreed to marry a dying man; my hands wouldn’t stop shaking, and somewhere across town, Raymond was probably already dialing my number.The wedding took place three days later, right there in Thomas’s hospital room.A nurse stood as our witness, and so did a quiet man in a gray suit who introduced himself as Joseph, Thomas’s attorney.I thought it was a little odd to have a lawyer at a bedside wedding. But my high school sweetheart squeezed my hand, and I let the thought go.His eyes shone when he said his vows.
Mine did too. Source: OriginalAfter the small ceremony, Joseph pulled a folder from his briefcase and set it on the rolling tray table.”Just a few papers, Nancy,” he said kindly. “Standard things. Take your time.”I didn’t take my time.
I signed each one right where he pointed, trusting Thomas the way you trust the sun to come up.That evening, my phone rang. Raymond again.”Have you lost your mind?!” he snapped when I told him about the marriage. “Marrying a dying man you barely know?!””I’ve known him longer than I’ve known you,” I said quietly.”Nancy, listen to me. You’re being manipulated.
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