New Beginnings
The calendar sat expectantly on the kitchen table. The familiar routine beckoned. Such an easy task in previous years, transferring important dates, growing the children by one year for each upcoming birthday. A time for planning and forward thinking. A new start, a new year.
She sailed through January and February, but faltered at March. The first of three dates to be left unmarked; a birthday, Father’s Day and an anniversary. The photograph of a moorland scene only increased the squeezing of her heart. Howard would have liked it there, she mused, in his walking boots and a block of Kendall’s Mint Cake in his pocket.
She turned to April, remembering, and grabbed her phone. There it was, the 15th. Her daughters due date. She wrote it boldly and circled it with star bursts that mirrored the lifting of her mood. A new beginning after all, despite everything. And he’d known about the baby. That was something, at least.
She turned back to March and wrote his name against the 21st, then flicked forward to mark the other two dates. He was still there in her heart and in the new life that would arrive soon.
No, he would never be forgotten.
THE END