YOU Have Been Selected To Join The Shittiest Club Ever! Here's What Happens Next
With unexpected bonuses like: How do you talk about you together when one of you is dead? Is it in the present tense, since you are still here? Or is it in the past tense since he isn’t?
Welcome, Monday!
Let's start with a dumb mistake I made! Last week, I wrote here gushingly about AJ, saying how I had met her in the comments after which she submitted her artful and gut-wrenching story. AJ sent me the sweetest note back correcting me and saying that she was not active in the comments and that that wasn’t her.
It turns out, that was another commenter also named AJ I had been writing to. Then THAT AJ recognized the same error and took the sweet action of changing her name here to AJoy. So I appreciate AJ for pointing it out and not eviscerating me over it. I also appreciate AJoy for helping make that distinction now —and I still really want her to write one of her stories in longer format here. AND as this community grows, I'm going to have to start putting numbers after your names or come up with a better tracking system for myself. I’m so sorry for the mixup!
Let’s talk about Cheryl, the writer featured today. I did actually meet Cheryl in the comments of other posts on AJPT and appreciated her constantly unique take on other people's writing. I asked if she had a story she wanted to tell here. And this was the one. I love her for sharing it with us all.
Cheryl also has been DMing me regularly, as directed, such as five minutes ago while she is waiting for AAA to show up and change the battery in her car.
Speaking of your DMs, I got the sweetest one yesterday from a reader I won't name, telling me before anyone else that she had officially hit menopause. Yippee yi yay! I'm so honored to be the first person to know! Celebrate that!!
And while I’m throwing out commands, I'm watching the leaderboard to see which of you are already getting free subscriptions based on bringing in new AJPT readers. So far, Amanda Jane has brought in more new subscribers than anybody ever, except maybe me or Michael Stipe.
So send that link around, folks!
You may never have to pay for a subscription here ever again with how active you all are in recruiting new people to AJPT. Let's reach that milestone (just 170 to go). And thanks to the current queen, Amanda Jane!
Love always,
Me
By Cheryl Werber
You wake up, tears on your cheeks, the pillow soaked in your grief. You are on the couch in your best friend’s house. You cannot bear the thought of your now-empty house. The things and memories you shared with him. His presence is gone forever.
Your nieces and nephew quietly come down the stairs, and you quickly close your eyes, not wanting the stream of condolences to begin.
You wrote the social media post that your dearly beloved husband has quietly left this plane of existence. You did that about an hour after he passed, unable to sleep but still too tired to remain awake.
Already, there are too many words of shock, dismay, and words of sorrow flooding your feed and your inbox. Everything is gray. Or at least feels gray. You briefly wonder if you’ll survive the heartbreak. Or how.
Once there were the two of you.
Your husband, the solid, kind, and loving man. The one who never hesitated to cheer you on. Or to tell you the worst dad joke you’ve ever heard. Who loved you unconditionally, while hating himself just as much.
Now, there is only you.
You, who must live for the two of you until you meet again. And when you do, you’ll tell him of all your adventures and what you’ve done since he had to go, his body too tired from the cancer and the chemo.
He had one request: “Find someone else,” he said.
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