That’s it. The wake was over. Friends and acquaintances had left, the mother and neighbors cleared the table, washed the dishes, and Emily still sat, with her hands on the table and staring ahead.
— Honey, come stay at my place tonight, — her mother started to invite her. — Take Joey and go. I want to be alone.
— Emily refused. Victoria started to persuade her daughter, but she assured that everything would be fine with her. She just needs to rest.
Then Victoria hugged Emily tightly again, took her grandson Joey and left, quietly closing the door with her key. Emily remained alone in the empty house. In her head, the speeches that people said today were still sounding.
All remembered what a wonderful person the deceased was. Caring, hardworking, honest, how he loved his family. And that’s true.
Emily understood that these were not standard words that are customary to say at wakes. Her Brandon really was like that. They met at the end of winter.
That day the sun had already begun to warm, foreshadowing the coming spring. The snow began to melt under its rays. And in the evening, frost hit again.
The first puddles immediately froze, and the sidewalks turned into a solid ice rink. Emily was returning home from work and scolding herself. Why did she wear these new boots in the morning? She wanted to show off her fashionable purchase to her colleagues, and now in boots with high heels on this ice, every meter was hard for her.
Emily tried to walk in small steps, but at some point she couldn’t hold on and, funny waving her arms, fell in the middle of the street. The heel on the boot broke, the purse flew to the side. The girl wanted to cry.
She didn’t get hurt, but it was very offensive. And she also thought that all passers-by would laugh at her ridiculous fall. But there were almost no people on the street.
Only a guy was coming towards her. He didn’t laugh, he helped her get up, handed her the purse and seemed very concerned. “Are you all right? Are you hurt?” Emily’s house was very close, but getting to it with a broken heel was not so easy.
Therefore, the girl gratefully accepted the guy’s offer to help her. So, leaning on Brandon’s strong arm, she reached her house. And then she got used to leaning on him all her life.
They played the wedding in the summer. Brandon had not a very big, but solid house, which he inherited from his grandfather and grandmother, and they began to build their family nest in it. Brandon worked as a long-haul trucker, so he often and for a long time left home.
But when he returned, he devoted all his time to the family. Brandon spoiled Emily with flowers and gifts, did the repairs in the house with his own hands. And a year later, their son Joey was born.
And, of course, Brandon turned out to be a wonderful father. Sometimes girlfriends even said with envy. “You have a golden husband! He went with the child to the park to ride on swings-carousels, and mine drinks beer all day with his buddies!” And Emily herself knew that she had the best husband, beloved, the only one.