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Betty held the small piece of cardboard with shaking hands, the accumulated grief of thirty years alone spilling onto the words with large wet tears. She reread the message, sent from her long dead love during the business trip from which he never returned. Darling, The old woman let the square of paper slip from her fingers as she laid back in her husband’s old recliner. She closed her eyes and took her final breath. Her last words echoed through the empty rooms. “I can’t wait to see you again, too.” |
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The Postcard by Catherine Russell
Filed under Catherine Russell
52|250 A Year of Flash 
Thank You for the gift of prose. I was thinking maybe it would be cool to write a short story on the back of a postcard, then send it to someone you know, or don’t know.
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Masterful! This is so sweet. And what I great last line, for the story, and for her life.
Like Tom’s idea as well.
Hopefully she’ll be happy this way.
Lovely. Touching, sweet and tinged with sadness. Bravo!
The pathos and the old woman’s faith in redemption makes me think suicide.
I like the postcard message and how you use it.
Ah, the power of love that keeps us eternally connected. I hope she finds him.
So very sweet and sad, yet hopeful.
This is heartbreakingly beautiful Catherine. I love how you can say so much with so few words.
Sad. It’s amazing how the most mundane and ordinary thing in the world, such as that postcard, can become so important.
Nice work, Cathy. Short and sad, a little bittersweet. It’s a shame she held onto her grief for so long, but if he just disappeared I can see how such a wound would never heal. You capture that feeling very well.
~jon
I get two ideas of sadness from this: that he died and she mourned, but also that she never got over his death and has lived in this shadow ever since
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Powerful stuff, Catherine. A love story packed into such a small space. Peace…
Full of hope that she gets to see him -well done.. a whole story in such few words..its sad but I liked that she did not forget even after all those years.
Gorgeous. Utterly gorgeous. Marvelous. Very, very well done.
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yes, it’s full of sadness. I ended up hoping she had enjoyed her life, but feel that she did not. It is melancholic but uplifting too. Certainly emotional. Short and wonderfully composd.