Three days before my wife died, she grabbed my hand and said, “Seek your first love… and please forgive me.” After 36 years of marriage, I was not prepared to discover what I had done

My name was written on every envelope.

My hands were freezing.

I took the first one.

The lyrics were Susan’s.

The date was just a few months after I had moved.

I looked up at her.

I never got this.

“I know,” he said quietly.

I opened the letter.

The first line almost made my heart stop.

Robert, I made a terrible mistake. I should have gone with you.

I kept reading.

Susan had written that she missed me.

Which I regretted rejecting my marriage proposal.

That I had finished the semester and was ready to move.

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I had written that if I still loved her, I wanted to start again.

I looked at the following envelope.

And then the next one.

There were eight letters.

Eight.

All addressed to me.

All unopened.

“I don’t understand,” I whispered.

Susan sat down in front of me.