She joined us for Thanksgiving dinners, birthdays, Christmas celebrations, and ordinary Sunday afternoons.
Sometimes she’d stop by just to drink coffee and talk.
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She even had her own house key.
She knew our daily routines, where we kept our spare linens, and which kitchen cabinet contained Robert’s favorite mugs.
I never found any of that unusual.
After all, this was Susan.
The girl who’d shared her sandwiches with me in elementary school.
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The woman who’d stood beside me through every difficult chapter.
The friend I’d trusted for forty-two years.
Then Robert passed away.
And my entire world changed.
Losing him left an emptiness I couldn’t explain.
Our house suddenly seemed enormous and painfully quiet.
His favorite chair remained beside the living room window.
His jacket still hung exactly where he’d left it.
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I couldn’t bring myself to change anything.