Thank you, everybody. Your taking the time to offer all those kind words means much.  Karen got down there and reported that Dale looked peaceful, joyful, in a way that took her back to their childhoods. I can just picture their mother smiling and waving hi at them from the kitchen in that brick house in the woods that she designed.

And it makes perfect sense to me. He had loved. He had been loved in return and at long last in his life even married–no small thing to a man nearly blind who knew what it would take for someone to take him on in her life.

I imagine his pension meant that his new wife would be taken care of as any good husband would wish for if he couldn’t be there. His small family of sister, brother, niece and stepmom meant that Sally would have a loving family wrapped around her in her grief, just as they’d rallied around their stepmother, who had married their widowed father shortly before his own passing.  Dale leaves his wife with their love as well as his.

And when her own time comes, he will finally get to introduce her to his parents.

I’m so glad they had each other and the time they did!