Part One: Before She Dies
After seeing the movie trailer for 'The Bucket List', the girls in the office discussed what they wanted to do before they died. Each had a long list. All except Mary. Today she would complete her list. She hoped.
She had already sky dived, snorkeled in Florida, hiked in the Rockies. She had been to Rome, Paris and Cairo. She had stood on the steps of the Parthenon, had been to the Wailing Wall. She had walked the moors in England and had done a walk about in Australia.
She had met people from all over the world, had been in nearly every type of place of worship, and had seen great works of art and architecture.
(She had also experimented sexually with men. And women. But this information, she kept to herself.)
Her co-workers were amazed. What was she doing in this office? Was she independently wealthy? What could she possibly have left to accomplish? A dozen pair of eyes looked at her with interest and curiosity. Mary just smiled sadly and turned away. A dozen disappointed faces watched her leave.
Mary couldn't tell them that she had done those things because of a terrible diagnosis. She had been told that she was dying. Her ex-husband had been no comfort. She didn't have any children. She was alone with her pain and her fear.
Her life before the diagnosis had been boring, safe and completely unsatisfying. She had been without sex for three years. She never dated, unwilling to get close to anyone for fear of being hurt again. She didn't even have a cat - the whole 'cat lady' stereotype was just too much for her.
She had been called pretty, but didn't bother to help herself in that area either - no makeup, dull clothes, her hair hung straight and limp.
The closest she came to having a sex life was vicariously on a sex site - reading the stories and the blogs and conversing with people from around the globe.
So she had turned to her blogging buddies and asked for prayers and support. It came pouring in with sympathy, humor, well-wishes, and advice.
One comment touched her though. He had never commented before. He wasn't a watcher. He had just stumbled onto her blog literally his first week on site.
"So, what are you doing tomorrow?", DomMike4U asked.
She had absolutely no answer for that. What was she going to do? She wrote to him privately and asked if he had any suggestions. Boy, did he!