EPILOGUE
{This is the final portion of a story that begins here:}
After graduating high school, Mary Ann enrolled at a local community college. It was a state school. As a state resident, she was eligible for reduced in-state tuition. Linda and I were able to look after Evy while she attended classes. When she completed the second year she was accepted to a four-year university in a city 200 miles from where we lived. Linda relinquished a well-paid position to accompany her and help with Evy. In turn, I paid her tuition. I had a sister in the city who lived alone in a four-bedroom house. She offered them her hospitality. Unfortunately, the distance limited my ability to spend time with Evy. She was 3 1/2 when they left.
After graduating with a degree in English, Mary Ann worked for a time at a local weekly newspaper. She wrote a column featuring local veterans who had fought in Operation Desert Storm. After several years, she accepted a higher-paying position. In doing so, she and Evy moved to a city 1500 miles away. After that, I only saw her a couple of times a year. I missed seeing Evy grow up, but Mary Ann had grown to become a fine young woman and an independent adult. Despite our broken family, she turned out well.
Today, Mary Ann is a married middle-aged adult. She and her husband own a suburban house. They have a guest room where Jenny and I can stay when we visit. Even though we are retired, the distance still limits the frequency of our visits. Jenny has developed medical issues that make travel difficult.
Evelyn has grown to be a fine young woman as well. She is married and has recently given birth to a baby girl. She and her husband own a suburban house not far from where her mother lives. Evy attended a two-year college but did not finish. She is pursuing a career as a pet groomer.
I lost track of two characters in this saga over the years, Paul and Sharon. Through internet searches, I found some information on each.
When I performed an internet search looking for a picture of a pin that looked similar to the one Paul had given Linda, I couldn’t find one. I included Paul’s name in the search and discovered he is now retired. I discovered an online jeweler who was selling some of Paul’s jewelry. None of the items pictured looked at all like Linda’s pin. Nevertheless, I chose one to illustrate Chapter 1 — Part II. The pin in that picture really is Paul’s work.
The search turned up an article about Paul having been involved in an auto accident in 2023 in which a man was killed. It was not Paul’s fault. The article mentioned that he was with a “female partner.” I wonder if it is the woman he was spotted with by Linda at the mall all those years ago.
If I had gone to Colorado looking for Sharon I might well have found her. This is where I would have found her:
Her date of death is two years before Linda left me for the last time. It is six years after the last time I saw her. She was only 44 years old.
She is buried in Linn Grove Cemetery in Greely, Colorado, the city where she was born.
It was a painful revelation for me.
During the years that Linda and I were living in the home we purchased, there were a couple of occasions when Sharon got a hold of me by phone. On each occasion, she was having a paranoid delusion. She needed my reassurance, which I was able to provide.
It was awkward because, on both occasions, Linda answered the phone and handed it to me. I could tell that Linda believed I was still seeing Sharon. I suspect that Sharon sensed my awkwardness and stopped calling. She may have had no one to turn to. Her last call was approximately two years before her death.
I was unable to find anything about the circumstances surrounding her death. Given her mental state and her young age, was it suicide? If so, did it have anything to do with my abandoning her?
Did her demons finally get the better of her?
I will probably never get the answers to those questions.
Rest in peace, Sharon.
Jenny and I have been together as a couple for 30 years. She has two adult sons who she had raised as a single mother. During our first 7 years, we lived in separate residences. I was still in the country house that I had occupied with Linda. Jenny had never learned to drive and had no desire to do so. I would make the 15-minute drive to her apartment almost every evening. She would make dinner. Afterward, we would relax in her living room. On Fridays, I would sleep over and drive her to work in the morning. I would pick her up Saturday evening and we would spend the night at my house. We would spend Sundays together.
Before we could share a home, I had to sell my house. As a non-driver, Jenny needed to live where public transportation was available. I needed to do some work on my house to prepare it for sale. Also, Jenny and I were both cautious, we were in no rush to begin sharing a residence. We were particularly careful about marriage. Like me, Jenny had been a victim of a cheating husband. She had been in a couple of abusive relationships, including the one she left shortly before she and I met.
In November 2000 I sold my house and moved to an apartment directly across a parking lot from Jenny’s apartment. Hers was too small to accommodate both of us and all our belongings. Our kitchen windows faced each other. When I arrived home from work, I could sit in my living room and see her window. When the light went on, I knew she was home and I would cross the parking lot to join her. On weekends we would go to the laundromat together. Aside from not sharing a residence we were living as a married couple.
In November 2001, after 7 years as a couple, we purchased a home together. We live there now. In December 2010, we were married. We were married in a double ceremony with my dad and my third stepmom (mom and the other two steps all predeceased my father, but that’s another story).
It is now 2024, and we will soon celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. But it seems like we have been married since the day we met.
Linda was single for many years. Just before Covid struck she found the man she has been with since. They are sharing a home in a large city about 150 miles from where Jenny and I live. They seem happy.
