While reorganizing my files on my computer today I came across a folder called “Voicemails from Ellen”. I had saved these 10 messages after my wife died but hadn’t listened to them in a while.
Of course I played them. Suddenly I was transported back to a different time. They were the routine messages she left about the mundane activities of our life. But throughout the updates about running late from Macy’s, asking if I needed anything from the grocery store, trying to catch up before my plane took off, there was something else.
There was love.
I could tell she was smiling when she said, “Hi Sweetie” at the beginning of each message. I could feel her thoughtfulness as she checked in so I didn’t worry when she was running late. I smiled when she called me to let me know her prescriptions wouldn’t be ready until the next day, so she didn’t want me to waste my time stopping by the pharmacy on the way home.
You could say there was nothing special about these 10 voicemails that I managed to save.
I would argue differently.