It was the day before her daughter's wedding and Meredith was busy doing the flower arrangements for the tables. Her daughter Muriel was so excited about the wedding, despite the fact that her father passed away four months ago.
It was such a sad day when Paul passed. He went to sleep and then just did not wake up again. The autopsy showed a massive heart attack, and the doctors assured her that there was absolutely nothing anyone could have done to save him.
She would never forget that terrible day in her life... she tried to wake him but she couldn't. She immediately phoned the emergency services but it was already too late. Paul has left her a widow at the mere age of fifty seven.
It has been very hard on all of them, and she didn't know how she would ever get past that empty feeling, but then Muriel got engaged, and involved her with the wedding arrangements. It has kept her so busy, she didn't know what she was going to do with herself now that the wedding was only one day away.
She sighed when she finished the last arrangement. She opted to do the arrangements herself, not only because it would be cheaper but she loved arranging flowers, and Muriel begged her to. She bought the most beautiful white roses and made that the vocal-point in the arrangements. White roses were Muriel's favorite flowers, and Meredith kept the last twelve roses to make Muriel a hand bouquet. She carefully tied the flowers together with a white satin ribbon and wrapped the stems in wet newspaper.
It was an extremely hot day, and she had turned down the air conditioner more than once already. The owner of the venue came to check on her, because he wanted to lock up, and turned the air conditioner even lower to 17 degrees Celsius. He assured her that the flowers would be in a perfect condition and he would make sure to sprinkle all the bouquets with water the next morning.
Meredith felt accomplished when she drove home. She switched on the light as she walked in after parking the car in the garage. She had to get used to being alone, and to do everything herself. She switched on the television to get some sound in the house, and then realized that she was hungry. She was so busy she had forgotten to eat today and went to the kitchen to scramble some eggs. She had just finished and was about to sit down to eat when the lights went out.
"Had she even remembered to pay the power bill?"
She was so busy with the wedding arrangements, and her memory was not all that good these days. She opened the curtains to check if it was only her, and realized it was the whole area.
She took a candle from the drawer, lit it and then laughed at herself when she sat down to eat at the kitchen table.
"Alone by candle light...." she said out loud and felt depressed all over. She did not finish her food, and took only a few bites before pushing it aside. She took the candle and walked upstairs.
"Nothing else to do but go to sleep..."
She put on her pajamas and climbed into bed. She turned to her side, and suddenly missed Paul more than she had ever before. She fell asleep thinking about all the good times they had together, and she wished with her whole heart that he could be with her tomorrow.
-To be continued-
