"Yeah, I remember."
"She asked me to do something for her that night," Ritchie went on to say.
"Hannah did?" Unable to hide my surprise, I looked up from my beer.
Now Ritchie glanced away. "While you were playing a video game with Max, Hannah spoke with me privately."
I moved to the edge of my seat. The noise from the television blaring above the bar seemed to fade into the background. Every muscle in my body tensed, almost as if I knew what Ritchie was about to tell me.
"She said the doctors had delivered bad news."
I focused on an empty bar stool on the other side of the room. "I wanted to cancel dinner. Hannah wouldn't let me."
"She had a good reason for wanting to come that night," Ritchie explained. "She told me there wasn't any hope left and she'd accepted that she was going to die."
I wasn't in the mood to hear this.
Ritchie exhaled loudly. "She wasn't afraid of dying, you know."
"Why should she be? Heaven was made for people like Hannah."
Ritchie nodded, agreeing with me. "She'd made her peace with God long before that night. She never had a fatalistic attitude. She wanted to live. More than anything, she wanted to live."
At one time I'd doubted that. "I begged her to let me take her to Europe because I'd read about an experimental treatment there. She wouldn't go."
"It was too late," Ritchie said simply. His hand tightened around the beer bottle. "She knew it even if we didn't."
That was Hannah--not only was she wise, but forever practical. While she was willing to accept the inevitable, I clung to every shred of hope. I spent hours studying medical journals, calling specialists, doing online research. But my crazed efforts to cure her didn't make any difference. In the end Hannah had been right; she'd reached the point of no return. She died less than two months later.
Even now I was shocked by how quickly she slipped away. It was the only time in our marriage that I became truly angry with her. I wanted Hannah to fight the cancer. I shouted and paced and slammed my fist against the wall. Gently she took my bleeding knuckles between her own hands and kissed away the pain. What she didn't seem to understand was that no amount of tenderness would ease the ache of her leaving me.
The waitress brought our meals, but I couldn't have swallowed a single bite had my life depended on it. Ritchie apparently felt the same because his steak remained untouched for several minutes.
"Hannah asked me to give you this," my brother-in-law finally said. He pulled an envelope from his jacket.
"A letter?"
"She asked me to wait until she'd been gone a year. Then and only then was I to hand this over to you. It was the last thing my sister asked of me."
I stared up at Ritchie, hardly able to believe he'd kept this from me. We worked out at the gym three mornings a week and had for years. In all these months he'd never let on that he had this letter in his possession.
"The night of the dinner party I promised Hannah I'd give you this," Ritchie said. "I put the letter in our safetydeposit box and waited, just like she wanted me to."
Not knowing what to say or how to react, I took the letter.
We left the sports bar soon after. I don't remember driving home. One minute I was in the parking garage in downtown Seattle and the next time I was aware of anything I'd reached the house and was sitting in my driveway.
Once I'd gone inside, I dropped my keys on the kitchen counter and walked into the living room. I sat on the edge of the sofa and stared at the envelope. Hannah had written one word on the front of it.
Michael.
I looked at my name, mesmerized as grief rippled through me. Unbelievable though it seemed, it felt as if her love for me vibrated off the paper.
My hand shook as I turned over the envelope and carefully opened it.
Chapter Two
don't know how long I stared at the letter before I found the courage to unfold it. It consisted of four sheets.
I The first thing I noticed was the date. March 13. This was another date that had been burned in my memory-- the Friday of our appointment with the medical team, when we'd received the devastating news.
Hannah had written the letter that day? That was impossible. I'd been with her every minute from the appointment until dinner with Ritchie and Steph. That meant...
I fell back against the sofa cushion and closed my eyes. Hannah must have written the letter
before the appointment. She knew even before we got the final word. She'd always known. In some way I think I did, too, only I couldn't face it. I'd refused to accept what should have been evident. I returned my attention to the letter. She'd written it by hand, her cursive elegant and flowing. I felt a visceral reaction to seeing her handwriting, which had once been so familiar. I tensed as if I'd just taken a punch to the gut.
My darling Michael, I know this letter will come as a shock to you and I apologize for that. It's been a year now and I imagine it's been a difficult one for you, as well as our parents and Ritchie. I would've given anything to have spared you this grief.
Even on the verge of death, Hannah didn't think of herself. Instead, she was thinking of me, our parents and her brother and how terribly we missed her and how deeply we'd loved her.
For the past few weeks I've been giving serious thought to what I wanted to say and what my last words to you would be. Please bear with me as I have quite a lot on my mind.
I know people laugh when they hear about love at first sight. I was only eighteen when we met, and young as I was, I knew instantly that you were the man I was going to love...and I have, from that moment forward. I will love you until the day I die and beyond. And in my heart I know you'll love me, too. I want to thank you for loving me. Your devotion to me through everything I've undergone since the cancer was diagnosed has been the greatest gift of my life. You have made me so happy, Michael.
I closed my eyes again, fearing I didn't have the emotional strength to continue. I knew when Ritchie handed me this letter that reading it would be hard, but I didn't know
how hard it was going to be. I dragged in a deep breath and went on. The early years of our marriage were some of the most wonderful days of my life. We had so little, and yet all we needed was each other. I loved you so much and was...am so proud of you, of the caring pediatrician you've become. You were born to be a physician, Michael. And I was born to love you. Thank you for loving me back, for giving so much of yourself to me, especially during these past few months. You made them the very best months of my life.
I don't want to die, Michael. I fought this, I honestly did. I gave it everything in me. Nothing would have made me happier than to grow old with you. I'm so sorry that, for me, the end has to come so soon.
Please don't ever believe I had a defeatist attitude. When we first got the diagnosis, I was determined to fight this and win. It's just in the past week that I've come to realize that this cancer is bigger than I am. There's no use pretending otherwise.
I had to stop reading a second time, regretting once more my insistence that Hannah travel to Europe for the experimental treatment I'd wanted her to receive. It'd been far too late by then. I took a moment to compose myself, then went back to her letter.
I've asked Ritchie to give you this a year after my death. Knowing you as well as I do, I suspect you've buried yourself in work. My guess is that you spend twelve hours a day at the office, eating on the run. That isn't a healthy lifestyle, my darling. I do hope you're still meeting Ritchie at the gym three times a week. I smiled. Yes, Hannah knew everything about me. Right down to the long hours and skipped meals. I'd tried to quit my exercise regime, too, just like I'd dropped Thursday-night poker with the guys. But Ritchie wouldn't let me. It became easier to show up than to find an excuse.
Two weeks after Hannah's funeral he arrived on my doorstep in his workout clothes and dragged me back to the gym. A couple of early-morning calls from my brotherin-law, and I decided I couldn't fend him off anymore, so our workout became part of my routine once again.
This next section of my letter is the most painful for me to write. Although it hurts, I have to accept that there's no hope now. I suppose it's only natural when facing one's mortality that regrets surface, along with the knowledge that the end is close. The greatest of those regrets is my inability to have children. This is harder for me than even the discovery that my cancer is terminal. I so badly wanted your baby, Michael. A child for my sake, yes, but yours, too. You should be a father. You will be a wonderful father. Oh, Michael, I so wanted a child. Once more I was forced to stop reading as a lump formed in my throat. "I wanted a child, too," I whispered. I rested the letter on my knee and wondered if I could finish without giving in to the weakness of tears. And yet I had to read on. I had to know Hannah's last wordstome.
I have one final request of you, my darling, and I hope you will honor it.
"Anything." I would do anything for Hannah.
What I want, what I need from you, is this, my dearest love. I want you to marry again. I gasped. No way! I'd already thought about this, and I couldn't do it. I'd had the love of my life and I'd be foolish to believe it could happen twice. If I did remarry, I'd be cheating the new woman I pledged to love. I'd be cheating us both because my heart would always belong to Hannah and only to Hannah.
I can see you shaking your head, insisting it isn't possible. Michael, I know you. I can almost hear your protests. But this is important, so please, please listen. Loving another woman won't diminish the love we had. Nor does it mean you'll love me any less. I will always be a part of you and you will remain a part of me.
The thing you must remember is that my life's journey is over.
Yours isn't.
You have a lot of living left to do and I don't want you to waste another moment grieving for me. You made me completely happy, and you'll make another woman equally so. I wasn't sure I agreed with Hannah, wasn't sure I was capable of loving another woman, not with the same intensity, the same depth. She didn't understand what she was asking of me. I had no desire for another woman, no desire to share my life with anyone else ever again.
Knowing how stubborn you are, I realize you're going to require a bit of help, so I've compiled a short list of candidates for you to consider.
What? A list? Hannah had supplied me with a list of possible replacements? If it wasn't so shocking I would've laughed. Still, curiosity got the better of me.
Remember Winter Adams, my cousin? She was a bridesmaid in our wedding. Winter has a big heart and she loves children. She'd make you an excellent wife. She's also a chef and will cook you incredible meals. In addition to being my cousin, she's been a good friend. I want you to seriously consider her. Of course I remembered Winter. She and Hannah had been close. We hadn't seen as much of Winter after she opened her restaurant, the French Cafe on Blossom Street, not far from my office. Hannah and I had visited the cafe a few times and enjoyed coffee and croissants. I recalled her keeping in touch with Hannah, mostly by phone. If I remembered correctly, Winter had been going through some relationship crisis shortly before Hannah was diagnosed, and, Hannah, being Hannah, had offered her comfort and encouragement.
Winter had been at the funeral and had doubled over in tears at the cemetery. I hadn't heard from her since, although I vaguely recalled a sympathy card she'd sent me after we buried Hannah.
