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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Wedding Dress


   "It's starting to rain again," Miriam thought. Looking around, she was, at the moment, alone in the quiet of the ICU Waiting Room.  It was a comfortable room, nice chairs.  The volunteer at the desk was very helpful.
   Joshua was brought in earlier in the day.  Getting up from the breakfast table, Joshua teetered, turned to look at her, and uttered "Miriam", then, collapsed to the floor, unconscious.  She grabbed the cell phone and called 911.  The EMTs were very prompt in their response. The Fire House is only 4 blocks away. "He looks so pale," she thought. They offered to have her ride in the ambulance, which she did. Now, she's been waiting, waiting to be able to look into Joshua's loving eyes again.
   Miriam learned to live in the moment, and this moment was a very long one. No word after an hour. They were doing tests. "Joshua hated medical tests," she thought, "I hope I can see him soon." Two of her daughters joined her just as the doors to the ICU Unit swung open.   A nurse walked through and into the waiting room.  "Mrs. Burton?" "Yes?," Miriam answered, yanked from her reverie. The nurse sat down next to her and began to explain what they done for her husband.  The nurse ended with a soulful "I'm so sorry."
   Sixty-two years of marriage.  Not just a legal bond, but truly wedded bliss.  Now half of her being was torn from her in body, but in spirit, she felt the love of Joshua embracing her soul, and Miriam was comforted.
   She shed some tears when she was told the news, almost forgetting that Maggie and Jan were there with her in the ICU waiting room.  They seemed to take it harder than she.  She felt for them.  They could not know the spiritual bond she and Joshua shared throughout their life together.
    Now, all four children were downstairs, waiting for her. "What to wear?"  she sighed.  "Not black," she thought.  She pulled out an old box, and carefully lifted the dress out.  Miriam donned the dress, looked in the mirror and thought, "Perfect.  I don't want to be thought of as a bereaving widow.  I want this moment to be a moment of joy," she thought.  What greater joy was there to remember than the day she and Joshua committed their lives to one another?  It was a time of pure bliss, and that blissful union is still a part of Miriam's "moment."  
   As she descended the stairs, her children and families stared at her with incredulity.  On the way to the funeral chapel, her progeny chattered with gasps and chuckles and tears.  Miriam only smiled, remembering how blessed she and Joshua were to have brought into the world four souls. When they arrived, Miriam gathered her strength and made her way up the aisle. Her friends and family were already seated.  When they turned to see who walked in, they were awestruck.  Miriam walked up the aisle, smiling with a smile that would befit a bride.  All that was missing was the processional music. She was wearing her wedding dress!
   After the service, Miriam got up, walked over to the casket, and stretching her arms over it, caressed it as if she were embracing Joshua himself.  A long moment ensued, and as if watching a slow motion movie, Miriam slid to the floor, a glowing smile on her face, a grateful prayer in her heart and the name "Joshua" whispering through her last breath.  
   As they were united in body through life, Miriam and Joshua were united in spirit, through death.

                                                                                     by Allen G. Dec

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