Fishes

Ever since losing my husband, people like to rationalize and insinuate that it has to be somehow “less painful” for me, because after all, we didn’t have children. To me, it feels like they are saying we weren’t really an actual family, since it was only me and him and our pets. People have actually said to me time and time again: "Well, at least you didnt have children." As if that is somehow supposed to cushion the tremendous lifetime blow that MY HUSBAND IS DEAD! I’ve also had lots of people wrongly assume that we werent planning on having kids anyway, so therefore, I didnt really lose anything in the way of a future family. Sigh.

Sometimes I really hate people and their insensitive remarks. Who cares if we were planning on having kids or not? Does it matter? The point is; the possibility, the hope, the option; was taken from us the second he died. Not only do I grieve the loss of my husband – I also grieve the family we never got to have. Each time I see other families playing happily together, kids swinging on a swingset, a little boy that maybe looks a bit like Don, a little girl with his sense of humor, a dad and his son tossing a ball back and forth, it all comes flooding forward and instantly hurts my heart. All of these scenarios are cruel reminders of what will never be. There won’t be any kindergarten or 1st year birthday parties or school functions or science fairs or graduations or marriages or grandparent days – not for us. The brutal and sad truth is that my husband will never get to be a dad, and I will never get to be a mom. We will never have our family, and that, in itself, is a whole other kind of loss to grieve.

About 11 months ago, my brother and sis-in-law, Jen, had their 2nd child, my niece, Jillian. She was born after Don died, so she will never know him. But my nephew Brian knew him, and my husband really loved that kid. A few months ago, my brother told me that lately, Brian had been asking questions about Uncle Don, out of the blue. He only 2 years old when he died, and now he just turned 4 and is very curious. He wanted to sleep in the bed with me when I went home for a visit, because he said “Auntie Kelley is sad.” He whispered into my mom’s ear during dinner one night that he had a secret. “Uncle Don died”, he told her, with me sitting only a few feet away. “But don’t tell Auntie. She doesn’t know.” My mom laughed nervously and said: “Im pretty sure she knows, Brian!”

My mom babysits Brian and Jillian once a week while Dave and Jen are at work. She called to tell me this story of the dialogue that happened between her and Brian during their time together recently. I scribbled it down as she was talking, so while it’s not exact wording since I wasn’t there, it’s close. The conversation began when my mom noticed that the fish in Brian’s fishtank were no longer there.

Mom: What happened to your fishes, Brian?

Brian: Oh, they died.

Mom: Oh, they did? Im sorry to hear that. How did they die?

Brian: They died because I forgot to feed them. I didnt feed them and they died, like Uncle Don died.

Mom: (taken aback) That’s right, Brian. Uncle Don died, and we all miss him very much.

Brian: Did Auntie see Uncle Don die?

Mom: No, but she went to the hospital to see him afterwards.

Brian: He used to pick me up and then go really really high , almost to the ceiling, Grammy!

Mom: That’s right honey. He did. He loved playing with you.

Brian: (putting his hands on his hips and getting very serious, like an adult) You know – he was a very nice guy. Uncle Don was a really nice man.

Mom: Yes he sure was. He was the best.

Brian: He was a really good, good guy. A very nice guy.

After that, Brian went back to playing and jumping around and being a little boy, but my mom was stunned by the seriousness in his tone. She said it was as if she was having a conversation with another adult, instead of a 4-year old. Now, I am quite sure that the most logical explanation for this “nice man” thing is that Brian has probably overheard my brother and Jen say things like that about Don, and he is just repeating it. Or maybe it’s something more.

Some say that when people die, their souls or their spirits are easiest to reach by both kids and animals. Im convinced that our cat Autumn sees Don in the ceilings and talks to him, because of the strange way she acts, meowing like a lunatic for 20 minutes straight each night, while staring at the exact same spot in the hallway ceiling. And as crazy as this makes me sound, I often see Don through our other kitty Sammy’s eyes when Im petting him. I sing to them both the songs that we used to sing to them, and I tell them how much I miss their daddy.

Maybe Im nuts, or maybe I just dont have any children to see my husband’s eyes in. Maybe I see him instead wherever good things are, and because he never got to be that wonderful dad he should have been, maybe it makes my heart sing and skip a beat or ten, to hear that he left some sort of impression on a boy who was only 2 years old. Maybe that boy remembers and understands more than we think and know.

Or maybe my husband was just a really nice man, who is now floating or swimming or walking around in the universe out there - sleeping with the fishes.

(Picture one is my husband Don with Brian as a newborn. Picture two is Don lifting Brian in the air, the game that Brian described to my mom in the dialogue above.)