Wasted years, Wasted Tears

I plan to include some of my writing class work over the years in this blog. All are true stories and I am Nancy (the name my father wanted to name me when I was born) and Aubrey is Bern (his middle name was Bernard) The other names are names I made up to avoid using the people's real names. Here is one I wrote about 10 years ago.

Wasted Years, Wasted Tears
By Ann Roberts

The ringing of the telephone jarred Nancy from her daydream. When she answered, it was an older friend and the first words she said were "I got my old sweetheart back".

"What are you talking about?" Nancy replied. She knew Edith's husband had been dead for several years. What Edith told her gave her a total shock. It seems that fifty years before she had been married, for a short time, to another man and he had called her wanting to see her again. They had separated because he had a problem with alcohol and Edith didn't feel she could stay with him. Both had gone on with their lives and married again. No one in the town knew of this first marriage. And now she was planning to remarry her first love. She invited Nancy to the wedding.

Several weeks later Edith and Jim were married in the church chapel. They moved into Edith's house. Both of them had a son by their other marriages and both young men seemed to be happy with the renewed relationship. Neither of them had any prior knowledge of their parent's first marriage.

About two years into the marriage, Edith became ill and was diagnosed with cancer. She had surgery and then chemotherapy but still the cancer progressed. Jim cared for her as if she were a baby and even to the end they seemed totally happy just to be together. They admitted they had never really loved their second spouses as they had loved each other when they were young. They talked of the time they should have stayed together but didn't. He had stopped drinking right after their divorce, and Nancy wondered why he didn't do it before he lost Edith. Why did they remarry without trying to find each other again?

Soon Edith died and Jim was heartbroken. He also seemed ill and his son took him to see a doctor. It was then they discovered he, too, had cancer. He had not let Edith know he was sick, as he didn't want to worry her. Two weeks after her death, Jim also died.

Nancy went to the funeral and she was thinking, "All those wasted years, all those wasted tears. Why?"