Word Count:\u00a0 352<\/p>\n

An elderly woman prepares for her death by doing everything she wanted to do, not leaving loose ends, or adventures only imagined.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s cleaned the house as if for a holiday dinner. The floors have been waxed, the baseboards and door trims all dusted. She\u2019s gone through the pile of magazines on her side of the sofa, stops herself from tearing out recipes she\u2019d surely have saved if not actually tried. She\u2019s cleaned out the refrigerator, scrubbed the ice cube trays and refilled them. Down the basement the shelves once stocked with cans from supermarket sales are low in supply but the labels all neatly face front.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend she weeded and deadheaded the garden, pushed Ned to trim hedges and mow the lawn. Over the past months she bought a pink jacket, spent an afternoon at a matinee movie, ordered whole-belly clams at the diner they went to on Friday nights. She was hesitant but opened a bottle of wine her niece gave them last Christmas and served it for two Sunday dinners with prime rib.<\/p>\n

She looks around, assuring herself that everything\u2019s in proper order. Dust-free and sparkling clean. She smiles in a sad, crooked way, as if satisfaction and anticipation are warring. Past years collide with the loss of the future.<\/p>\n

She hears him asleep in his chair, full and tired after a good meal and the last of the wine. She makes a half pot of coffee, cuts two slices from the freshly baked apple pie. Wonders if she\u2019ll have time to clean up the dishes. Hates the thought of someone finding them left on the table.<\/p>\n

She sighs, prepares for the one last thing she needs yet to do. A promise they made to each other when they were first married. When he said he couldn\u2019t imagine living without her and she, being stronger, must promise not to leave him alone.<\/p>\n

She puts extra sugar and real cream in their coffee. Hopes he won\u2019t notice the slight bitter taste. She takes a deep breath, kisses his forehead, and gently wakes him up for dessert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Word Count:\u00a0 352 An elderly woman prepares for her death by doing everything she wanted to do, not leaving loose ends, or adventures only imagined. She\u2019s cleaned the house as if for a holiday dinner. The floors have been waxed, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,15],"tags":[25,24],"class_list":["post-1349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-100-days-2012","category-horror","tag-100-days-2012","tag-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1349"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1354,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1349\/revisions\/1354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}