My dying wife asked me to find my first love as her final wish — when I learned why, my knees nearly gave out.
My wife, Carol, and I had been married for thirty-six years when the doctor told us that her cancer had already spread and there was nothing more they could do.
During the final week of her life, I barely left her bedside at the hospital.
One evening, she squeezed my hand and whispered:
“You have to promise me something.”
I looked at her with tears in my eyes and said:
“Anything, my love.”
Then Carol sighed and said:
“Find Anna, please.
You’ll understand everything once you find her.
And please…
forgive me in advance.”
When I tried to get some kind of explanation from Carol about why I needed to find Anna and what exactly she was asking me to forgive her for, the doctors asked me to step out of her room because she needed to rest.
The thing was, Anna had been my first love.
We were both around 20 back then and attended college together.
I loved her deeply and even proposed to her, but…
she turned me down because I had to move to another state for work.
That was how we ended things.
The last thing I ever expected was for my dying wife to bring up my former girlfriend.
A woman I hadn’t heard from or seen in nearly 40 years.
Over the next few days, Carol got worse.
Three days later, she passed.
My heart was broken.
I had no idea how I was supposed to keep living without Carol.
I missed her terribly.
But over the next few weeks, I couldn’t get her words out of my head.
Why had she asked me to find Anna?
Still, it had been my wife’s final wish, and I’d promised her I would do it.
I had absolutely no idea why Carol wanted this, but I kept my promise.
After searching through countless Facebook groups and making phone call after phone call, I finally found Anna.
She lived in another city about four hours away from me.
And one weekend morning, I drove there.
I found Anna’s house and sat in my car for a long time, wondering what on earth I was doing there.
Finally, I gathered my courage and knocked on the door.
I recognized Anna immediately.
Her hair was gray, and she had wrinkles just like I did, but it was unmistakably her.
