It was 8:15 on a beautiful, sunny, Wednesday morning. I was just coming out of our driveway to begin a 5 mile walk around our neighborhood when I almost bumped into Stan.
Stan had been our investment banker before he retired and for the last 10 years had walked this route every morning with his wife Cheryl. Stan must be about 75 now and it has been several months since I remember seeing him. He doesn't look good. His eyes are unfocused and brimming with moisture; he is stumbling along, just putting one foot in front of another.
"Good morning, Stan, where's Cheryl this morning? I haven't seen either of you in months."
"She's dead."
We were approaching the bench or neighbors have out near the road, so I said, "Stan, let's sit and talk for a few minutes."
We sat and Stan's head dropped, he put his hands over his face and said, "Oh Sally, I guess I'm just feeling sorry for myself and reminiscing. After all, it's Wednesday."
"Stan, you're going to have to be more specific than that if I am going to understand."
Stan talked for an hour and in a nutshell, he told me that while he and Cheryl had been visiting their daughter out state six months earlier, Cheryl had gotten sick and died within a week. He had not been able to face life without her and had just wandered around aimlessly until he finally came home yesterday. Today he was trying to get back into the pattern of his life with the walk, but today is Wednesday and it was just too much for him.
"What is significant about Wednesday?"
"Cheryl and I always had a very active sex life, but as we got older, we were able to really only be totally successful if we saved all our physical passion for one day each week; that day was Wednesday. We always started our day on Wednesday with sex - sometimes we spent the entire day in bed, just loving each other. Today is Wednesday and I feel lost."
"I think we need to go back to our house. We need to talk with tgg."
Tgg was just putting his golf clubs in his car as we walked up to the house hand in hand. He greeted Stan and I said, "Honey, I want to be Stan's Wednesday sex partner if he will have me."
Stan's eyes got wide and his mouth fell open. Tgg picked up on it right away and said, "Why don't we go inside and I will explain everything to Stan before he has a stroke."