The saddest homecoming of my life

I wasn't supposed to be home today. We had planned to stay in Binghamton until tomorrow afternoon.

This was going to be a fun weekend. Marion was really looking forward to it. She brought some gingerbread mix and some of her favorite videos to share with my family.

I've placed her things in her room. I will call her father tomorrow and ask if he and her stepmother want them sent to New Jersey.

My brother and I put up one of the suet bricks Marion had brought along for the birds in my father's back yard. She loved watching the birds and the squirrels come to my father's back porch for peanuts and the like.

The old suet brick that had been there since our last visit over Columbus Day weekend had not been entirely consumed, so I left it on the porch. A squirrel dragged it away. Marion would have laughed with childlike delight at the sight of it. I can still hear her laughter in my head.

Marion and I were never lovers, but she was the love of my life. I'm going to miss her as long as I live.