A DEATH IN THE FAMILY
June, a friend of my lover Kelly’s and mine had to go to her father’s funeral in another state. When she got back she told us this story:
“ My father, Jim, had died of a heart attack while out jogging. Something he had been doing it for the last 3 years because my mother had insisted on it when he retired because she didn’t want him sitting around the house all day and she wanted him to do something healthy, so he picked jogging. He went almost every morning and was gone about an hour.”
“At the grave side service my Mom noticed a young girl that she didn’t recognize so she asked me if she knew her. I said she didn’t.”
“So after the funeral was over we went over to the girl and my Mom asked her who she was and how she knew her husband.”
“The girl introduced herself and said she worked at a donut shop. She said she knew Jim because he came into the store almost every day about the same time wearing a jogging suit. He would order 2 donuts and a cup of coffee. She said he would sit there eating his donuts, drink a couple cups of coffee, chat a little with her and read the newspaper for a half hour or so. Then he’d pay and leave leaving her a nice tip. So when she read in the paper he had died she thought that since he was such good customer and a nice guy that she’d come and pay her respects.”
“My mother was flabbergasted. On one hand she was pleased my Dad was considered a nice guy but on the other she was angry at him for not only eating donuts instead of jogging but for lying to her about it for so long. I tried to console Mom by telling her that at least he was out of the house and doing something he liked. If he had told her then they probably would have had a big fight over it. Anyway, it sure didn’t matter now since he was now gone. But my mother was too conflicted and grieving to try to understand any of it.”
“I stayed with Mom for a few days in which time my mother told everyone we knew the story. Most of the people thought it was kind of a funny story and felt about it as I did.”
We told her we thought it was pretty smart of her old man to do it. Why create an argument with his wife over something that need not even be an issue as long as he was discreet. He was happy eating donuts and she was happy thinking he was jogging. In the end everyone got what they wanted.