I married a man 41 years older than me because of his fortune — after his funeral, his lawyer handed me a box and said, “He made sure you got exactly

and the feeling that, for once in my life, I was not a bad week away from losing everything.

But Richard was nice to me.

Kinder than I had expectedI remembered how I had coffee. She noticed when she was tired. I listened when I was talking, even when what I said was of no importance.

And at some point, in an uncomfortable and almost shameful way, I stopped pretending that I didn’t care.

I really loved him.

So Richard got sick.

Everything happened terrifyingly fast.

Six weeks after the