Chapter 7 Time for Reflection

Chapter 7 Time for Reflection  
 
“All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall."  
 
Brittney remembered the scripture reference included with the note her mother gave her with a silver cross. She'd been puzzled by it but now thought it must have predicted her conversation with David about death that would occur 9 years after she received her mother's cross.  
 
May the flowers of your faithfulness color your world.  
Wear this cross to remind you of your obligations of  
fidelity to the love of your life. Isaiah 40: 6-7
 
Brittney had just stepped out of the shower after attending training all day with David and his friends. He had asked her to text when she was ready for dinner. As was her tradition, the first piece of jewelry she put on was a silver cross. The cross had been her “something old” to wear on her wedding day, passed down from her mother’s mother years before.
 
Now wearing only her cross, Brittney looked in the mirror and remembered David’s words from the night before. “We’ll all decompose in a grave someday regardless of what we do on this night.” Then she whispered “the grass withers just like my father withered away before he died.  
 
Brittney carefully loosened the clasp on her silver cross neckless and placed it in a side pocket of her purse. As she tried to zip her purse shut, she had trouble finding the pull tab and realized there were tears in her eyes. Her father had died less than a year after she and Alex were married and before seeing a grandchild.  
 
Brittney looked at her bare chest and her small pudge of her tummy remembering how she’d held her hand below that place while expecting her daughters. She placed her hand there again and felt the warmth, wondering how long that warmth would remain.  
 
As she slipped her panties on, she thought, one day I’ll cease to be. But tonight, I’ll be alive.  
 
Brittney texted David, "I'm ready."