I’m not sure how to begin this story. Do I explain about how I just bought the flowers because they were pretty and on sale? Maybe I should explain the significance of the date? Or should I start with sharing about my husband’s death 21 years ago?
All week I’ve been painting gladiolus. I just bought them at the store because they were super cheap on sale ($2.99 for a whole bouquet!), And they went with a color scheme I wanted to try.
I finished them the morning of September 6.
I was looking up glads on the internet: I often do this to try to help me title the piece. Thus I discovered that they are the traditional gift for 40th anniversary.
This year on September 6 my husband and I would have been celebrating our 39th… Which means we would have been together for at least 40 years.
I feel almost as if I just got an anniversary gift. Maybe it’s a stretch, since he was killed the year we celebrated our 18th year of marriage. I don’t care. It feels nice.
The title is a phrase from a Neil Diamond song that had always been meaningful to me as it relates to the fact that we were married in September–every year on September 6 I make a point to listen to that song. It brings lovely memories, and reminds me that we’re not so far apart that we’ve forgotten “how it was before”. Someday we will be together again.
