Chapter 20

Once alone, Kate and I fell back into our normal routine of work, gym time and alone time. In the beginning our living arrangement consisted of me paying for everything. If something did happen, I did not want money to come between us. But after several years together as a couple the finances became very lax. About that time Kate bought her a Mercedes Benz CLS 450 fully loaded.

I don’t think Robin Woods ever forgave me for not getting back together with her after Michelle had died. She became really hard to see and talk to on a daily basis at work. I finally had to break all contact with her and her family, it just wasn’t worth it. Several years later, she married an attorney from another firm and resigned at Butler, Land and Reyes. I saw her only once more on the day I buried Kate. She had a different look in her eyes and when she was leaving kissed me softly on the lips, reminding me of the Robin I knew so very long ago.

There were times that I felt Kate looking at me perhaps wondering what I was thinking. She never brought it up, but she knew I thought about Michelle quite frequently. We were engaged for several years before we finally set the wedding day. Pops and Maw Maw were elated when we got married, I actually think they wanted to be invited on our honeymoon.

Kate and I had a beautiful wedding with close to three hundred guests. We took a two week honeymoon in Savasi Island Resort in Fiji which was incredible. We returned and went back to work where Kate became one hell of a lawyer.

We tried for about a year to have a child but somehow it just never happened. We chose not to seek medical help because we did not want to know if either of us had a problem. We thought about adopting but somehow never went through with it. As the years passed, we finally figured we were too old to handle a new born child, especially with our careers.

My relationship with Kate’s family turned out to be more than I could ever imagine. Ben and Sheila treated me like the son they never had. In their later years, both Maw Maw and Pops spent weeks at a time living with us. We went out to eat, took them to shows and whatever else they wanted to do.

Maw Maw died of a stroke several years later and it really took the wind out of Pops’ sails. He eventually moved in with Kate and I living with us for close to two years before he passed away. Losing Pops was tough on me, he had become the father I never had.

Kate grew to be my wife, lover and best friend who I loved dearly. But somehow, through all of it I could not get Michelle out of my head or my heart. Kate and I rarely talked about it, but I am sure she knew. To her credit, she was never jealous or upset with me. Kate and I never had a serious disagreement and lived a wonderful life for decades until Kate died of a sudden heart attack at sixty-eight years of age.

The day I buried Kate, I quit on life. I was tired, worn out and heartbroken for the second time in my life. I had no desire to move forward and never returned to work. It didn’t take long for me to mentally shut my body and mind down.

Several weeks later, as I lay in ICU at the same hospital that Michelle had died decades earlier, I was at peace. When I buried Kate, the last reason I had for living was gone. I went home and got in the bed. I had no reason to get out of the house and weeks later, I collapsed on the floor. Security found me that night, they had been doing regular checks on me. I was brought to the emergency room and placed in ICU right away.

The doctors confirmed I had no physical ailments to speak of and that I could not just lay in bed and grieve myself to death. The nurses were constantly trying to get me up and walk around. What my doctor did not know was that I was not grieving but simply tired both mentally and physically. I had lived a great life and was loved by two beautiful and remarkable women who I wanted to see again.

I was not by any means a very religious person, but I felt I would be with Kate and Michelle once more. I’m not sure how I knew but that Friday night when the nurse checked on me at ten, I knew I would not see her again.

I’m not sure if I had a dream before I died that night but the last thing that ran through my head before I took that last breath was a vision of Kate and Michelle kissing each other.