Seventy, I Discovered His Golden Wedding Photo

Synopsis

I learned to use the internet when I turned seventy. The very first post I stumbled upon was a golden wedding portrait of my husband with another woman. The caption read: [Fifty years hand in hand. May we reunite in the next life.] I stared at the phone screen, too stunned to make sense of what I saw for a long moment. It defied all reason. Only the day before, Michael had complained my soup was too salty. The woman in the photo was his first love, the one he had always spoken of as the greatest regret of his life. What cut deeper was that my daughter had posted the photo. My son and daughter-in-law had liked it most avidly. A comment read: [I thought Grandma Margaret never married?] My daughter replied: [They got a marriage license back when they were young. They never made it public.] My stomach plummeted. I glanced around the spotless house I had tended all these years. All at once, I felt ridiculous. I walked into the kitchen, turned off the burner, and took off my apron. From this day on, whoever expects three meals a day can cook them themselves.