When Ann walked into the retirement home, memories of her mother flooded back and she had to stifle a sob. She headed for the reception desk and asked about her mother\u2019s belongings.\n
\u201cMrs. Fisher,\u201d the receptionist said sympathetically. \u201cIf you like, we can load the boxes with your mother\u2019s clothing and effects into your car\u2026\u201d\n
The receptionist was interrupted by a cry: \u201cAnnie? Annie Carson?\u201d a voice asked. \u201cIs that you?\u201d\n
Ann turned and saw a frail-looking elderly woman standing before her. \u201cMrs. Gove?\u201d she gasped. \u201cOh my God! It\u2019s been over thirty years\u2026\u201d\n
Mrs. Gove limped over and placed her arms around Ann. \u201cOh, Ann,\u201d she whispered. \u201cSeeing you is almost like being with my Simon again!\u201d\n
Ann hugged Mrs. Gove, and tears flooded her eyes. Simon\u2026 How long had it been since she\u2019d last thought about Simon? Years, probably since Mandy was born, and she\u2019d finally made peace with her past.\n
But once, when she\u2019d been the happy, lively Annie Carson, she\u2019d been in love, madly, completely in love with Simon Gove. They\u2019d met in college, at a campus bar.\n
Ann had been sitting with her roommate when she\u2019d suddenly been doused in ice-cold beer. She jumped to her feet with an angry cry, only to find herself face to face with the most beautiful boy she\u2019d ever seen.\n
\u201cI\u2019m so sorry!\u201d the boy cried. \u201cPlease, please forgive me!\u201d Anne had opened her mouth to remonstrate, but the boy dropped to his knees in front of her.\n
\u201cYou\u2019re so beautiful,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd this was the only way I could think of to get your attention, to get you to notice I\u2019m alive. Please forgive me, and say you\u2019ll marry me!\u201d\n
Ann had burst out laughing, and Mae, her roommate, exclaimed: \u201cAnnie, this guy deserves an A+ for effort! Marry him already!\u201d\n
It had been a wonderful night, and when later that night Simon had kissed her at the door of her dorm building, she knew he was the one, that she would never, ever want to kiss anyone else.\n
Ann and Simon had been inseparable from that night on, and when he proposed for real two years later, she accepted. He took her home to meet his parents and they were very welcoming.\n
\u201cYou are the first girl Simon has ever brought home,\u201d Mrs. Gove had exclaimed. \u201cAnd you\u2019re the prettiest thing I\u2019ve ever seen \u2014 he was right about that!\u201d\n
Ann laughed. \u201cYou can\u2019t trust Simon, you know!\u201d she exclaimed. \u201cHe\u2019s a fibber!\u201d\n
Mrs. Gove took Annie\u2019s hand in hers. \u201cNo, my dear,\u201d she said. \u201cMy Simon adores you, and I think he\u2019s found the right girl!\u201d\n
By the end of the visit, Mrs. Gove and Ann had been best friends. And when Simon met Ann\u2019s mother, Mrs. Carson had been delighted with her daughter\u2019s fianc\u00e9.\n
Ann had believed then that she was living a fairy tale, that everything was perfect. She was 23, she was about to become a teacher and marry the man of her dreams.\n
Then two days before the wedding, Ann and her mother went to pick up the dress, and when they got home, they found Simon\u2019s father sitting on their doorstep, his head between his hands.\n
\u201cMr. Gove,\u201d Ann had cried. \u201cWhat are you doing here so early?\u201d\n
Mr. Gove dropped his hands and struggled to his feet, and when she saw his ravaged face, Ann knew something terrible was about to happen.\n \u201cAnnie,\u201d he whispered. \u201cAnnie, it\u2019s our Simon. There was a car accident last night, and he and his friend David, they\u2026\u201d A horrible sound half scream, half sob choked Mr. Gove.\n \u201cNo!\u201d Annie screamed. She stepped forward and pushed Mr. Gove. \u201cLIAR! LIAR! LIAR!\u201d Ann ran into the house, up the stairs, and locked herself in her room.\n She lay on her bed and let her fear wash over her. \u201cLiar!\u201d she whispered. \u201cHe\u2019s a liar! My Simon is alright. He\u2019s alright.\u201d\n A little later, she heard someone knocking on the door. \u201cAnnie,\u201d she heard Mrs. Gove\u2019s voice say. \u201cPlease let me in.\u201d Ann heard the pain in Simon\u2019s mother\u2019s voice.\n She couldn\u2019t say no to her, not when the pain she heard echoed her own so exactly. So she got up and opened the door. \u201cMy love,\u201d Mrs. Gove said. \u201cOur Simon is gone\u2026\u201d\n The two women held each other and wept until there were no tears left. \u201cSimon will always live on in our hearts,\u201d Mrs. Gove had said to Ann after the funeral.\n \u201cYou\u2019re very young, Ann,\u201d she said. \u201cOne of these days you will wake up and you will discover it\u2019s a beautiful day, despite the pain. And maybe on another day, you may meet a young man, and you will discover that you can love someone else. And that\u2019s OK. That\u2019s life. It doesn\u2019t mean that you love Simon any less, it just means that you are human and that you are healing.\u201d\n Ann listened with tears running down her cheeks, shaking her head in denial. \u201cNo!\u201d she cried.\n \u201cYes,\u201d Mrs. Gove said gently. \u201cBecause that is what Simon would have wanted. He loved you so much, Annie, he would have done anything for you, so do this for him \u2014 be happy.\u201d\n Now, nearly thirty years later, Ann was standing with Mrs. Gove. \u201cWhy are you here?\u201d Ann asked. \u201cMr. Gove\u2026\u201d\n Mrs. Gove sighed. \u201cI\u2019m afraid Alfred passed away six months ago,\u201d she explained. \u201cHe had Alzheimer\u2019s and so I sold the house and we moved here. We were in the married couple\u2019s wing, they\u2019ve just moved me here.\u201d\n \u201cMy mother was here,\u201d Ann explained. \u201cShe just passed away. I miss her so much!\u201d\n Mrs. Gove gave Anne another hug. \u201cYou must be strong my dear. Do you have a family?\u201d\n Ann nodded. \u201cYes, I do,\u201d she confirmed. \u201cMy daughter is grown-up, she\u2019s left the house\u2026 My husband\u2026well, he spends a lot of time working and he golfs on the weekends\u2026\u201d\n Mrs. Gove said softly, \u201cI guess being a woman means being alone, mostly.\u201d\n Ann looked at Mrs. Gove, and an idea blossomed. \u201cMaybe, maybe not\u2026\u201d\n When Ann arrived home that afternoon, she was not alone. \u201cHey, honey!\u201d she called to her husband. \u201cJack?\u201d\n Her husband came out smiling. \u201cHey hun!\u201d he said, then he stopped dead. \u201cWho\u2019s that?\u201d he asked, looking at Mrs. Gove who was standing in the lounge with her suitcase beside her.\n \u201cJack,\u201d Ann said. \u201cThis is Mrs. Gove, a very dear, very old friend. She\u2019s moving in with us.\u201d\n \u201cWhat?\u201d asked Jack. \u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d\n \u201cWell,\u201d Ann said. \u201cYou always said my mother was welcome to live with us\u2026\u201d\n \u201cBut she didn\u2019t!\u201d Jack protested.\n \u201cBecause she\u2026\u201d Ann stopped and searched for words that wouldn\u2019t hurt.\n \u201cBecause she didn\u2019t like me!\u201d Jack cried. \u201cYou think I didn\u2019t know that? Why do you think I suggested she move in? I knew she never would!\u201d\n Ann stared at Jack. \u201cIt was a scheme to make yourself look good?\u201d she asked. \u201cYou didn\u2019t mean it? Well, that\u2019s too bad. Because Mrs. Gove is moving into the suite I fixed for my mother!\u201d\n \u201cThat woman moves in, and I move out!\u201d Jack shouted.\n \u201cGo ahead,\u201d Ann said calmly. \u201cYou already spend all your time at the office or at the golf course. I honestly don\u2019t think it will have an impact on my life if you leave. Besides, you forget, this is MY house. I bought this house before I met you. I have a job and a good salary. I don\u2019t need you, Jack, I haven\u2019t needed you in years, not since you stopped loving me.\u201d\n That night, Jack slept on the couch and Mrs. Gove slept in the guest suite. In the morning, he packed his bags and left the house. Ann called her daughter Mandy on Skype and explained everything.\n \u201cMom,\u201d Mandy said, \u201cI\u2019m not surprised you kicked dad out, but I am surprised you took in some random old woman!\u201d\n \u201cMandy, Mrs. Gove is NOT some random old woman!\u201d Ann cried. \u201cShe is the mother of the love of my life, the boy I was going to marry when I was twenty-three. She\u2019s so alone, and I love her. I miss gran so much, and I think Mrs. Gove and I will be good for each other. I want you to meet her, OK? I think you will love her.\u201d\n \u201cYou were going to marry someone else?\u201d asked Mandy. \u201cTell me about him\u2026\u201d\n So Ann did, and it felt good to talk about Simon and those wonderful dizzy years when she was Annie and had believed that dreams could come true and that love was forever.\n When Mandy came to visit for Thanksgiving, she fell in love with Mrs. Gove and the two giggled and gossiped like schoolgirls. Ann smiled the whole weekend. She had never felt so good about her life, so relaxed.\n Then the phone rang, and it was Jack. He asked to speak to Mandy and Ann could hear him whine, \u201cDid you know your mother left me for an old woman?\u201d\n Mandy answered coldly, \u201cYou were the one who left, dad. In fact, you left mom years ago when you stopped paying attention to her, being there for her. I\u2019ve met Mrs. Gove and she\u2019s a lovely, gentle lady. I\u2019m glad she\u2019s here with mom.\u201d\n Ann was delighted to have Mrs. Gove with her. The two women spent two wonderful years together until Mrs. Gove\u2019s already fragile health deteriorated.\n Towards the end, she was hospitalized, but Ann was there, holding her hand during her last moments and saw her friend smile and whisper her son\u2019s name before her eyes closed for the last time\n Mrs. Gove was laid to rest beside her husband and her beloved son. After the funeral, Ann was stunned when Mrs. Gove\u2019s lawyer contacted her and asked her to come into his office.\n He explained that Mrs. Gove had left Ann her entire estate which amounted to over $1.7 million. He read from the will: \u201cAnne Carson Fisher was destined to be my daughter, but fate cheated us. At the end of my life, Ann had been there for me, and has become my daughter in truth.\u201d\n Ann was amazed by Mrs. Gove\u2019s legacy but she was even more surprised when her ex-husband called her. \u201cAnn\u2026\u201d he said in the smarmiest voice. \u201cBabe, I was thinking we could get together, start over\u2026\u201d\n \u201cJack,\u201d Ann snapped. \u201cI\u2019ll see you in hell first! Get lost! You are out of my life!\u201d\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ann Fisher lost her mother when she was fifty-two. Ann and her mother, Fiona, had been very close, and her loss left her devastated. Ann was a mother and wife, but nothing filled the vacuum Fiona left in her life. A week after Fiona\u2019s passing, the retirement home in which she\u2019d lived called Ann and …\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":81363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,642],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-moral-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81356"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81364,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81356\/revisions\/81364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"For](%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/cdn.amomama.com%5C/db25b6a7bf219ad7475e5590a53e201d.jpg%5C%22 "\\"\\"")
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