RETURN FROM THE BIRTHDAY BASH

Driving down an almost deserted stretch of highway at dusk, the top half of the trees lining the road were ablaze with light from a bright orange sun seeking it's sleep behind the hills for yet another night. And after a great day of celebrating my wife's 60th birthday, we were trying to make it to the beach in time to witness what would be a lovely end to this already wonderful day...a spectacular lakefront sunset.

"Don't you want to be with me?" she asked as if offended by a bit of husbandly musing that I'd just offered off the top of my balding little head. I had to think a bit before I answered my wife' question.

Earlier in the week as we drove home from playing golf, my brother-out of the clear blue sky, wondered if I had any plans for disposing of my body when I eventually leave this world. He has already brought a plot in the same familiar cemetary that so many of our friends and relatives rest eternally in down near the railroad tracks of our small hometown. Presumably, my elder sibling and his wife will be cremated and lie together forever beneath the shade of the elms, oaks and maples in that most peaceful of places. I, on the other hand am not so sure where in the heck I want to end up. Too many variables.

My wife has told me more than once that she wants to be cremated and stored inside a little box next to the one her mother has. As much as I love my wife and also cherished my mother in law, the thought of spending perpetuity inside the wall vault of her mom's favorite church doesn't exactly thrill me. This was what I was trying to explain to my spouse without hurting her feelings too much.

My brother brought up another important reason for not coming to a concrete decision on that final resting spot: What if our spouses outlive us and end up with someone else (knowing our family history, there is more than good possibility of this happening)? Which one of their husbands/boyfriends would they pick to be with? I can almost say with complete certainty that if my wife meets a handsome stud who loves nothing better than doing home improvement projects and playing Scrabble, I know who she will end up with after my departure from this planet.

In the end (literally), I think I will want to be in the most places possible; a little with my wife if she still has fond memories of my time with her; perhaps a small jar of my ashes scattered among the wildflowers bordering the dirt road of my favorite jogging route; the rest of me sprinkled among the sun-speckled memorial stones that watch patiently over my mom and dad's final place of rest. It isn't that I don't want to be with you alone honey and there will lots of me to go around. Does that answer your question?

As we pulled into a nearly empty parking lot facing the lake, the golden half-globe of a brilliant sun was sinking behind a row of pine trees and sending a shimmering walkway of light across the lake toward our car. My wife and I held hands while giving thanks for yet another day of feeling blessed and I expressed a fond hope that when I got to be her age, I would have an equally good birthday.

OWWWW!!!