Tuesday, June 09, 2009

His Dead Wife Was In The Pool

Arthur and his wife were friends of my Dad's. They lived in an assisted living facility, not because they needed help, they were just tired of cooking for themselves. Their new place was a glorious two bedroom with private gardens and a patio full of flowers. There was a doctor's office in the compound, a pool, tennis courts, and did I mention a medical facility? And 3 meals a day. Don't think I didn't consider moving there myself. But I can't do Florida, lightening capital of the U.S. and me all full of metal. And the humidity is just wrong.

This loving couple was married for over 50 years. Madly crazy in love. When she died of a heart attack in her 80's, he was devastated beyond repair. He was a bear of a man, a daily swimmer who had easily recovered from 2 knee replacements. But his emptiness over his wife's death was so huge that it took him weeks to even be up for a walk. No one could cheer him up. After four months he finally got back into life and even took up his daily swimming ritual. He was often found poolside reading the newspaper.

Arthur was a very neat man. Everything in its place kind of guy. So he was sitting by the pool one day when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He put his paper down and saw one piece of newspaper floating in the pool. He hadn't noticed it when he sat down; how did it get there? Had it been there all along and he hadn't noticed? He knew that wasn't possible since he knew exactly where the walnuts and the cashews were and they were in identical canisters on the same shelf in the left kitchen cabinet.

He looked right and left. There was no one around. There were also no other loose pieces of newspaper anywhere on the grounds. Annoyed, he waited to see if a gardener or pool man would wander by and pick it out but he was all alone on a beautiful sunny day.

After a while, the wet newspaper bothered him so much that he decided to get it out himself. He walked over to the pool office, retrieved the pool net and with the long pole he gingerly edged the paper towards him. He laid it on the concrete and looked at the date.

It was the date his wife's obituary appeared in the paper. Four months earlier.

And her picture was staring back at him.

This entire week's posts are excerpts from His Dead Wife, my novel on reincarnation. Some of the names have been changed or omitted to protect the people who got on my nerves.

20 comments:

  1. I'd be happy to scoop your obituary out of the pool.

    Boss O xx

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  2. I hope someone changes the water. Then again, possibly been peed in a thousand times....

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  3. wow. that was amazing.

    i LOVE this stuff...........

    Sunday morning I was thinking to myself that we needed to trim out hedges out front. It hadn't been done for a year, and suddenly popped into my mind. An hour later, Tighwad was out front trimming them. I hadn't said a WORD to him.

    huh.

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  4. 'lightening' as opposed to 'heavyening'? :O lol

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  5. Definitely got goosebumps with that one!!!

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  6. Anonymous5:59 AM

    She was checking in on him. Making sure is was alright. Great story.

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  7. Now there's a story. . . I have goosebumps!

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  8. I really felt I was there with him. That niggling annoyance at out of place things and then having it be something profound and eery.

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  9. WOW!

    I have heard similar stories actually. I had a high school friend die when she was only 18. A year after she died, her family was finally getting around to cleaning her room and closet out. They were in the living room, discussing what to do with all of Amber's formal dresses (there were about 20) of them. They were considering giving them to Goodwill. When all of a sudden there was a loud crash. It came from Amber's old room. They ran in and opened her closet. The bar that had held all of her formal dress had broken. All of the dresses were in a heap on the floor.

    I completely believe in reincarnation. And also that our loved ones can speak from the beyond, wherever and whatever that is.

    Cool story, can't wait to read more!

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  10. Here's a few more stories. I took care of an elderly couple in their final days. The day he died, a small bird landed in the tree closest to their back door. It kept singing for 2 days. The afternoon of his funeral, it flew away.

    My grandmother died in 1985. My Dad died in 1994. We had been in and out of his home office numerous times to find paperwork we needed. Days went by and my Mom went into the office. Right in the middle of my Dad's desk was the prayer card from my grandmother's funeral.

    Since my dad died, my Mom and I have gotten numerous signs from him, always at times when we are struggling with something and ask him to help us.

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  12. Was she telling him he still got her wet?

    Did I just say that?

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  13. I've very much enjoyed reading your stories.

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  14. wow! When is your book coming out?!

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  15. OK, SEE? I was JUST about to say: See? I TOLD you you needed a book. And there you go - you have one. Finish it, get it to a publisher's, hon.

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  16. Great storytelling.

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  17. That was probably her way of telling him she was watching him and not to ogle to pretty girls at the pool.

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  18. It's a wonder he didn't have a heart-attack in response!!

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  19. These stories are fascinating. Cords. Have you heard this theory of cords? They attach us to people and they don't always break with death. Maybe there is something to that idea.

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