Brother Reconsidered
The hospice nurse tended Mom as she prattled random memories. Outside the room, I heard, “My fourth child has a different father.”
An immutable foundation of my world cracked. Joey looks different and is a lot younger. But, I never considered ….
He’s my closest sibling. I helped raised him as a baby.
Does this change everything? Or, nothing?
What do I do with this bombshell burden? Keep it hidden to myself? Tell Blake and Sarah? Broach it with Joey? How? Over lunch, “By the way, Joey, did you know, you’re kinda not my brother?”
This shock was not the inheritance I expected from Mom.
Unmatched Set
On an overcast Saturday morning, Sandra was shopping at the Goodwill thrift store. She was buying old cups and supplies for a painting project in her elementary school class.
On the shelves of dusty glasses, she spotted a lonely and fragile champagne flute. It was beautifully decorated with optimistic hearts and flourishes. In the center, an engraving said, “Maria & Ron, June 30, 2018, Love and Happiness Forever”.
Her heart twinged with a shot of pain. The crystal brought memories of clinking a similar glass at her own hopeful wedding.
At home, Sandra still kept her half of the divorced set.
It was a mere bauble, but a reminder of a happy day turned dark. She kept it as a cautionary warning of the possibilities when opening her heart. A red flag, not to staunch her optimism, but to tinge it with a dose of reality.