I married a 70-year-old hospice patient to fulfill her last wish — after the funeral, her lawyer stepped aside with me and whispered, “I need you to see something. She didn’t choose you by accident.”

The news devastated Margaret.

They hadn’t even had enough time together.

It felt as if life had finally returned something precious to her, only to take it away again.

At the funeral, Margaret was already struggling to hold herself together.

Then Thomas’s daughter approached her.

There was no warmth in her expression.

“It’s time for you to leave,” she said.

Margaret stared at her.

“I don’t understand.”

“You need to go.”

Margaret looked toward the house.

“I just want a photograph of Thomas.”

His son appeared with Margaret’s old suitcase.

“