Then Evelyn became sick.
Her handwriting grew smaller.
Near the end of her life, she began worrying about what would happen to Thomas after she was gone.
Their children would love him.
But children could not be his entire life.
So Evelyn told Thomas something extraordinary.
Find Margaret.
Not because she believed I had been waiting.
She assumed I had a husband and family of my own.
She simply wanted Thomas to answer the question he had carried since boyhood:
Was Margaret happy?
If I was, he could leave the past alone.
If I was not, life could decide the rest.
Then Evelyn explained the provision in the house trust.
She had been the one who suggested it.
She worried that if Thomas ever remarried, Claire and Daniel might view the new wife as someone replacing her.
She wrote:
Our children will misunderstand this if Thomas ever remarries. They are good people, Margaret. But grief can make good people territorial.
