I Married a Terminally Ill Man Because It Was His Final Wish – After His Funeral, His Lawyer Knocked on My Door and Said, ‘He Made Me Wait Until Today to Tell You Who He Really Was’

“Do you know how to play?” he asked.

“Do you cheat?”

“Only when necessary.”

He studied me for a moment.

We did.

***

I brought soup, washed dishes, and made tea. Before long, Carl remembered everything I liked.

At first, I assumed he was observant.

Later, I realized he was remembering.

Carl had stage four cancer.

He never pretended the treatments were working. He simply disliked allowing illness to become the largest thing in the room.

When pain interrupted a conversation, he waited for it to pass, then picked up exactly where he had stopped.

Except once.

We were playing Scrabble when he tried to tell me about a teacher he had admired. His mouth opened, but the sentence would not come.