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of all the injuries she had sustained, I was glad she had been spared any pain with her instant death.

A year and nine months after Amy's senseless death, I finally put aside my mourning and began my new project. I worked in great earnest, determined to finish it the day before the second anniversary of her ascension to Heaven. I worked relentlessly, most times forgetting to stop to eat and had taken to sleeping on a cot in my studio when sleep would overcome me.

My brother, Eric, came to see why I hadn't been answering the phone when it came time for his once a month call to check on me. He noticed how much weight I had lost and how haggard I was looking. It took some convincing on my part to reassure him that I would start taking better care of myself to avoid Eric having my physician hospitalize me. He stayed a couple of weeks to make sure I did.

I finished my sculpture a day early and called a moving company to transfer the piece out into the garden; I was still too weak to get it there by myself.

The fifth of May arrived in splendor. The early morning sun began to dry the dew from the lush grass and nodding roses. Birds thrilled out their various songs, oblivious what the day held for me. I pulled off the tarp from my latest creation. I had been able to accurately replicate the statue of Amy with one difference, at her feet was a statue of me kneeling before her. The blank eyes of my effigy looking up to her with all the love I had ever held for my darling wife showing on the pale marble face.

I stood there for several long moments before moving under the elms where we once made love. I laid down to face the new creation of love and waited for the thirty sleeping pills I had taken to return me to Amy's arms. Although I was faced with the fact that the new statue was not the original, I had done my best to keep my promise to her. My only regret was there would be no children or grandchildren to bequeath the legacy of our love.

A stiff breeze stirred the air. White rose petals floated to settle on me and my depiction of eternal lovers.

Learn more about this author, Dorothy Baum.
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