Sometimes A Little Romance Breaks Things

May 13, 2010 by winjaw

It’s been a rough time for the Little Black Dress.

She’s working with her brother to get their parents’ house on the market, a herculean feat and emotionally draining; we’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of her mom’s death.  Just a lot of stuff.

So she’s in the kitchen and one of her favorite songs comes on. And she turns to me and asks me to dance.  And who am I to deny The Dress a dance? So I walk over, put my arms around her and proceed to kick over  - and break – a small urn/decorative piece.  A piece The Dress had saved. Because it was her mom’s. And her mom really liked it, so it had special memories for The Dress.

Timing, John, timing.  

And I start to say I’m sorry and she just smiles and tells me to be quiet with a simple look. A look that says a lot, especially when you’ve been married to someone a long time. A look that says “I’m not going to cry,” “Don’t worry about it,” “My mom loved that piece,” “It’s just stuff,” “I’m not going to cry,” “Damn it,” “I’m not going to cry.”

“Just dance with me.”

And so I did.  And at least I didn’t step on her toes.

And after the song, we looked at each other and at the same time said, “we’ll get through this.”

And we will.