Death, Taxes, & Love

by, Mr. Ian WG

[Painting by, Leonid Afremov]

It had just stopped raining. The streets had a noticeable shine and the air felt wonderfully fresh. I was on my way home after a long day of work and was ready to watch some shows and drink a beer or two. That was until that moment I’d never forget.

You ever see another human being and stop completely in your tracks? I did that when I saw her for the first time, standing there with a ridiculously gigantic umbrella. When I saw her, I felt like I was getting run over by a monster truck and getting promoted, all at the same time. It was surreal.

What felt like ten hours later, I realized I had to go and introduce myself. This wouldn’t be any easy feet because I lacked any and all social skills. That’s why I lived alone and did people’s taxes for a living. It was quiet living. It was safe. It was also lonely and boring. No matter what, this was an opportunity that I wasn’t going to diminish.

There she was with that smile, those big green eyes, and long red hair. I felt like I was looking at Leonid Afremov painting.

I finally introduced myself to her and said “Hi, I’m James. Quite the umbrella you have there!”. She then said that her name was Alison and that the umbrella had been her’s since she was a child. She also said that I had a nice beard. I’ll be honest, I blushed under my beard when she said that.

It was then that I noticed she had just come out of a mortuary. That’s not exactly a place I see a lot of people wanting go to. The mortuary was called “Bridgestone Funeral Home”. She then proceeded to tell me that she worked there and in fact, her family owned it. This caught me by surprise because she had a bright demeanor and being surrounded by death on a daily basis doesn’t seem to usually bring that out of people. It was what she said next that made me never forget that moment.

“There isn’t life without death. It’s beautiful. We live and are given life by the Earth and when we die, we give back to it.”, she said.

Imagine that, over here my biggest questions in life were only ever along the lines of “What tie will I wear to work?” or “Did I leave my door unlocked?” It turns out there is more to life than run-of-the-mill monotony.

This being such a eye opening night of my life, I asked her if she wanted to meet up at the park near both of our places of work to delve deeper into everything that came across our minds and have some lunch while we were at it. She was coy and said she’d love to. I didn’t know whether to call this a date or not but deep down, it felt like a soon to be date, our first date.

The next day rolled by and the rain had completely cleared. It was sunny as could be and I was ready for our picnic date. I brought subs from the local deli and a old blanket my grandmother made for me when I was younger for us to sit on. Not much later after setting everything up, there she was, in a yellow summertime dress, looking as stunning as I remember from the night before. She had a bright smile and said “Hey, you!”. I smiled back and told her that I was glad to see her. Time went by and we were hitting it off, talking about her upbringing and mine. We even talked about taxes. For the record reader, that wasn’t my idea. It turns out though talking numbers doesn’t totally bore her like it does with everyone else. Alison was one of a kind.

A year goes by, Alison and I have met up at the same park, at the same time every Saturday. It was our thing. One night, at that park, we sat with our backs against the trunk of the famous oak tree in the center of the park, which had been standing there for almost a century. It was a quiet night and we sat there for hours, close to one another, looking at the stars. It was then I asked her if she wanted to come live with me. She said yes almost immediately. I was enthralled by her answer and so began the next chapter of our relationship.

Another year goes by and we have adopted a Husky pup and named her “Delilah”. I also got promoted at my tax agency, which not only gave me more time with my girls but also kept me from touching another cubicle ever again. Hallelujah! More and more, I spent time at the Bridgestone Funeral home learning more about death, thanks to my experienced girl friend. From cleaning to dressing the dead, I was becoming quite the funeral director. It was one day though that gave me full perspective and even chills. A boy, not older than thirteen, had died from a horrible skateboarding accident. How scaring of a site it was to see him getting prepped for burial by Alison and for a moment there I felt horrible until I remembered what she said to me when we first met. “There isn’t life without death. It’s beautiful. We live and are given life by the Earth and when we die, we give back to it.” That would keep me from feeling depressed when being around it all at the mortuary.

Here we are on our three year anniversary, some time later. I took Alison to her favorite Italian food restaurant, “Little Naples”. The food and service was fantastic and after that it felt right to take her to the legendary oak tree we spent so much time in past years. That’s when I did it. In the peaceful silence of the night, I proposed to Alison Bridgestone. She said yes! The women of my dreams was also the women I got to spend the rest of my life with. We had tears in both of our eyes as we embraced and we were excited for the future to be.

Our wedding was in front of that very oak tree I proposed to her at and after a full day of festivities, we were married.

The married life was everything I ever wanted. A another year went by and my new family, the Bridgestones, offered me an honorary funeral director position at the funeral home. If this were four years ago, I would have said no and ran as far away as I could but I easily accepted. When I wasn’t teaching young agents about taxes and finance, I spent the rest of my time working with Alison. It was great.

One day after work, Alison and I decided to get some ice cream as a little end-of-day date. She was smiling as bright as I remember from the night we met but all was not well. She has a strong cough and started quickly developing a fever while we were there. I thought originally that is was just the start of a flu or at worst, an allergic reaction. None the less, I took her home and gave her medicine. She was not improving and days went by. I was starting to get scared for her but I never showed it so she never felt it from me. It wouldn’t of mattered anyway. She was always the calm one in the relationship. After the forth day of pain for her, I took her to the hospital. The Doctors couldn’t cure her with their special medicines so they had her do an MRI scan. The MRI scan showed the root of her problem.

She had cancer developing in her brain. The Doctor said it was growing at rapid speeds. My heart dropped but Alison, being the Zen master she was, never lost her calm. She was amazing at that. Truly.

A year of chemotherapy later, Alison was getting worse. The drugs they put her on were weakening everything. She…she was dying. My Alison was dying. I could barely sleep for months while this was going on. I would fall asleep holding her hand when I could sleep. I never wanted to let go.

One day, one month later, I was waking up by her side when Alison’s vital signs were dropping. The doctors and nurses ran over to stop her from dying but they couldn’t stop the inevitable and Alison knew it. I held her head and kissed her one last time but it was then that I remembered once again what see said to me all those years ago…

…“There isn’t life without death. It’s beautiful. We live and are given life by the Earth and when we die, we give back to it.”…

She was gone but not forgotten. She was and is always my one true love. She will live on in my heart and soul and I will be with my Alison once again.

I needed time. The whole family needed time. I quit my job as a Tax Agency manager and ran the funeral home full time.

I’m now eighty years old and not a day goes by that I don’t miss that ray of sunshine. I still sit against the trunk every Saturday, looking up at the stars, thinking of her. I know she still sits next to me. I know she is still there and she always will be.