Blindly reaching out for purchase, the shock of the moment shatters her.

Expected but still not prepared she wilts,

sorrow clouding her eyes.

The illness had been a long time building,

but slowly he’d slipped through her fingers,

a few memories at a time until he lay mutely,

not responding to those he’d loved so much just months before.

when the end came she wept for the man he’d been.

Strong and resilient, everything she’d ever known or wanted of the world

now left her alone for the first time since she’d met him.

Unsure of the next steps

not knowing how she would get through.

He was her everything, her rock, her solace in a hard world. The other half of her heart,

now cracked and bleeding in the bed where his eyes glazed over and the ragged breathing had stopped after his last, agonized breaths.

she didn’t know what to do

what to think or feel.

her heart was gone and so she would continue

blindly,

numb,

until she woke from this nightmare into a place where she saw him once more,

smiling and calling her name.