Old Spice

I have spent the past few weeks living with my mother in law, Sarah, as she gathers her strength to live independently.  Sarah recently turned 90 and is determined to live on her own.

One day she asked me to check the "other" medicine cabinet for an item she was looking for.  The "other" medicine cabinet is in the "other" bathroom which has always been identified as my father in law, Roy's bathroom.   Roy passed almost 12 years ago after celebrating 60 years of marriage together.  I have rarely been in that room and certainly not looked in the medicine cabinet.

As I slowly pushed the mirrored door to one side I was surprised and touched to see a bottle of Old Spice after shave, a small green bottle of Brut, his old tooth brush and more.  As I looked at these items stacked neatly on the double shelves my heart ached for the love that these two people shared.
Knowing that there is always so much tenderness, so many conversations, so much loving  that goes on in the privacy of marriage that is never shared with outsiders.

As I looked at the items kept in this cabinet for all these years I could only imagine the tenderness that Sarah must feel when she sees them.  I wonder if she opens the bottle occasionally just to be reminded of the smell and the closeness of the man she loved.  The man she shared her life with while raising four children.  The man she hoped to grow old with, but who left us all too soon.

I imagined that on those long lonely nights that maybe she puts a drop of old spice on the pillow next to hers, just to imagine once again the company of her husband.  Or maybe she looks at these bottles as proof that he did exist, he was here, he did love her.

I know that Sarah and Roy loved each other, but as I opened that medicine cabinet, I saw a tenderness I had missed previously.  I saw a bond that has not been broken by death.  I saw a love that will last for eternity.  I saw all of this in a bottle of Old Spice!

Life is Good!  Love is Good!