“Walt, I’ve been a good wife to you, haven’t I?”
The question surprised me because after thirty-six years, I thought she already knew the answer. I told her she had been the best thing that ever happened to me, and tears immediately filled her eyes.
“I need you to promise me something. Say yes before I tell you what it is.”
There was no reason for me to hesitate.
“Anything.”
Carol took a slow breath, and when she spoke again, her voice was weak but clear.
“Find Anna, please. You’ll understand everything once you find her. And please… forgive me in advance.”
The name hit me harder than anything the doctor had said.
Anna had been my first love, the woman I had asked to marry me in 1985. She had rejected me in a letter, saying she could not follow me when I moved away and asking me never to come looking for her.
