I’ll Take Care of You

Annie pushed her chocolate brown hair out of her eyes for the hundredth time regretting cutting bangs into her hair a few months back. She sat in the hospital waiting room while the doctor ran tests on her husband, Mark. “What is taking them so long?” She said aloud looking away from the tv and craning her neck in the direction of his room. She brought Mark in after his cold had gotten worse and he’d become short of breath. They assumed it was nothing serious but wanted to get checked out just in case it was the Coronavirus. Dr. Gamble walked towards her with a somber look on her face and all of a sudden chills spread over her entire body. She knew.

“Mrs. Howard,” Dr. Gamble began when he reached her. “Mark suffered a heart attack during his CT scan. Despite all of our efforts, we were unable to save him. Mark has passed away. I’m very sorry for your loss.”

The words he said to her sounded like the right words to say but had no feeling behind them whatsoever. For whatever reason, Annie was more concerned about how many people this doctor has had to break this exact bad news to over the last year. She was in shock. Disbelief. This clearly wasn’t happening. At 36 Mark was in great shape with no known underlying conditions. “It was just a cold...” was all she could muster.

A few hours later, after a Covid-19 test and dealing with the loss of her husband, Annie left the hospital with a bag of Mark’s belongings in hand. Over the next couple of weeks, that bag sat laying on their kitchen counter untouched.

Mark’s funeral came and went. Friends and family walked past the bag a dozen times over. Finally one day while ignoring a piece of toast, lost in her own thoughts, a glimmer of gold caught Annie’s eye. The sun was streaming through the window just right to set the letter “B” ablaze.

“What is that?” Annie asked the otherwise empty room. She walked over to the bag of Mark’s belongings and reached in pulling out a small black contacts book. She leafed through a few pages recognizing the names and numbers of the people they knew together. She stopped on page “Q” when she saw something out of place. “Sylvie” was scribbled in Mark’s handwriting and circled over and over again followed by a phone number. This was weird. They didn’t know a Sylvie, and it was impossible for Mark to have been cheating on Annie because they were together constantly and there was simply no time nor any opportunity.

Annie reached back in the bag for Mark’s phone, a photo of the two of them smiling back at her. She felt a pang of jealousy nagging at her. The people in this picture had no idea of what was coming and she wished to back in that time when it was taken. The phone unlocked at the sight of Annie’s face and she started searching for this number and Sylvie. What did it mean?

After turning up nothing from social media, reverse number search, and combing through page after page of their recent call logs, she discovered one phone call that lasted 34 minutes to Sylvie. Hands shaking, she dialed the number and listened to the ringing in her ear. “Mark?” A woman answered. Annie immediately disconnected the call. Who was this woman and did she really want to know why they’d shared a 34 minute phone call two months ago. Annie couldn’t bring herself to call back.

A couple of weeks pass and Annie is finalizing her work with their lawyer. Mark hadn’t had a will and they’d both been laid off due to the pandemic so there was no life insurance to help with the cost of Mark’s passing. Luckily, a few of her friends started a fundraiser that helped cover the funeral and lawyer to get all of his final arrangements made.

“Annie, I’ve got just one last call to make here. It seems there is an open claim that’s still being paid on. I’m not at all sure what this is or what it’s about but as soon as I figure it out and get it squared away, I’ll let you know.” Charles pulled his phone from his coat. “Actually let me call right now and see if I get anywhere.” Annie looked out the window of their home into their backyard. She heard Charles speaking but wasn’t able to focus on his words. She was still completely out of it. Nothing was real anymore. Life without Mark wasn’t life at all and now she was preparing to sell their dream home that they had built together.

She could still remember their last conversation before he’d been wheeled away for his tests in the hospital. He held her hand tightly. “Annie, let’s become foster parents...” Mark said. They’d decided they didn’t want kids of their own but instead wanted to help those already in the world that needed loving and caring people in their lives. Annie was so happy he’d decided on fostering over adoption because that would give them the opportunity help so many more children in need. Charles speaking snapped her back into focus suddenly as he ended his call. “What did you just say?” She asked Charles. He stayed silent for a beat. He’d just said the name Sylvie. She heard it clear as day.

“Annie... That was a woman named Sylvie Winters. She’s a life insurance agent. Apparently a few months back, after Mark and his friends from work were laid off, they all opened life insurance policies just in case something happened to them.” Charles seemed shocked. Out of it. Annie yanked open their junk drawer and pulled the little black book out turning directly to page “Q”. Sylvie’s name and number jumping off the page at her. “Annie... If you’re smart about this, you’ll never have to worry about money again in your life...” Charles continued. Annie had tears streaming down her face for the first time since Mark had died.

Charles went on to tell her that Mark was terrified of leaving her alone with nothing. Annie was always stressing about money and the bills being paid. He didn’t want her to have to sell their house or not follow up on the things they dreamt of having together. When he lost his job and had trouble finding a new one, he opened this policy to ensure that should anything happen to him, Annie would be covered and wouldn’t have to worry about anything ever again. “Annie, Sylvie will be depositing $1,000,000 to your account as soon as we send over Mark’s documents and certificate of death.”

-3 months later-

Annie waited outside the elementary school anxiously waiting for children to start filing out of the building. Slowly they trickled out until finally a steady stream flowed out the door. Kids of all K-5 ages happily ran to their busses or their awaiting parents. Annie’s heart skipped a beat when she saw her own daughter, Evelyn, and her son, Max walking hand in hand out the door. They stopped and scanned the waiting parents and spotted Annie waiting at her car. The two 7 year old twins ran full speed to her and crashed into her wrapping their arms around her as they did every single day. “Hey guys!” Annie said happily unable to conceal her excitement. “I missed you both terribly!” “Hi, Annie!” They said in unison. She packed them both up into their seats in the car as the three talked animatedly about what their weekend plans were. It was Friday after all and they had two whole days to fill up with fun! As Annie drove them home from school, she glanced in the rear view mirror. Leave it up to her amazing best friend and husband Mark to turn such a tragic situation into such a beautiful life for her and her adopted children.