210920 Letter to Joyce #3

Dear Joyce,

This picture above was Joyce holding Hailey when she was just a little baby.

Early this morning I was sitting having coffee in our home office. I looked at the bulletin boards with all of the notes about things to do and things to check on to ensure everything was okay. I leaned back in my chair and fondly remembered my time overseas when I had nothing but what fit in my sea bag and how simple things were back then.

Then I remembered mentioning that to you (probably more times than I should have done) and every time I said that, you so quickly reminded me that I had others to make things easier, cooking meals, cleaning, laundry, steering the ship, make all the decisions and so forth.

I have suddenly become the one and the only person in the crew, so now it is up to me to pay bills, make appointments, cook, clean, launder and make all the decisions and steer my ship of life.

At breakfast this morning there was no aroma of your bagel toasting. I prepared my cereal and then sat down to eat. I kept looking across the table. In my mind I saw you sitting there as you had for many years, but my eyes saw only an empty chair. To borrow from a Rod Stewart song, “I’ll be seeing you in the morning sun and when the day is through I’ll be looking at the moon and I’ll be seeing you.”

You are physically gone from this earth, but in my heart you will always be with me my love,

Bill