The Wisdom of the Willow by Nancy Chadwick

Author:Nancy Chadwick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: She Writes Press

It’s the morning of our party, a time to celebrate, and I am feeling particularly energetic, relieved my illness is out in the open with Joe. He works in the yard with such a sense of urgency to pull weeds, turn soil, and deadhead spent blossoms that I worry he won’t have enough left in him to enjoy our family time. I step outside and greet brightness, a cacophony of birds, and flowers opening their sweetness. The air is still as if in waiting for us to join in.

“Margaret, you just gonna stand there, or will you eventually make yourself useful?” Joe says, sneaking up on me and giving me a squeeze and a kiss.

“Apparently, you don’t see that I’m always making myself useful.” I give his rear an affectionate slap with the kitchen towel.

He moves closer and hugs me in a way that is new—as if he is desperate to steal just one more embrace while he can. I wonder what Joe will do when I’m not around.

Once, when Rose was in her last year of high school, we went into the city, choosing the sunniest of days, when the city was a symphony of sounds in a rhythm that somehow all worked like any good timepiece keeping time. We visited the Art Institute on Michigan Avenue and walked north all the way to Huron, stopping for lunch off Michigan Avenue on St. Clair, then moving on to the Palmer House for late afternoon tea.

Witnessing the vibrancy of the teal lake dotted with triangles of whitecaps and sails, the architectural wonders of skyscrapers, and the smart-looking business folks swiftly weaving through the whirl of local and tourist pedestrian traffic gave me a sense of livelihood and purpose. I spent the day feeling a freedom I hadn’t experienced in a long time. Actually, I didn’t remember ever feeling that way before. I got home well after dinner.

“What a day you two had! You couldn’t have gotten lost because Rose was with you,” Joe said when I walked into the house. “Did you give any thought to dinner?”

I hadn’t planned on fixing a dinner, and I also knew he wasn’t going to fix anything for himself. But I knew Joe expected me to make a meal.

Will Joe be able to take care of himself after I’m gone?

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