Wednesday Letters and Sundays

I just read this book. It was passed to me by my friend Tiffany. It is called The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright. The book opens with a husband and wife talking in their bed as they are getting ready to go to sleep. It is a Wednesday night. He has a brain tumor the size of a ping pong ball and she suffers from heart burn from her quesadillas that she had made for dinner. As they sit talking she suddenly puts a hand to her chest and complains of sever pain in her chest. Her husband tries to call for help (they own a B&B and have one tenant), but the tenant is out for the moment. He climbs out of bed to get the phone, and falls, too weak to walk on his feet, knocking over a lamp in the process. As he climbs back into bed, he takes his now lifeless wife into his arms. She has died of a heart attack and he was not able to do anything to help her. He lays her gently down next to him and pulls out a piece of paper and a pen to write the last of his Wednesday letters, which he had written to her every week their entire marriage. He finishes the letter, lays his head back and closes his eyes. In the morning, their one tenant, worried when no one is up, goes to check on them. She knocks, and when no one answers she opens the door. She finds this couple wrapped in each other’s arms, both dead.

The story is the story of their children, who never knew of the Wednesday letters and come together to prepare for a funeral and the struggles that each faces as they discover and read through the letters. It is a wonderful story of love, sacrifice and most of all forgiveness.

There is one letter in particular that touched me in a way I never thought possible. It was written following a particularly difficult week. One of their regular tenants had requested the he (about11 years old) and his family be allowed to stay at this B&B while he waits out the last few weeks of his life. The couple graciously allows it and this man shares his experience. It is the one last line of this letter that hit me. This was the only letter that he wrote to his wife on a Sunday. The young boy had died earlier in the day (much less than a few weeks later). He writes of the boy’s death and the peace and joy he must now feel. But he closes his letter with this thought: “Now I know why the Lord took his day off on Sunday. That must be the day he personally greets his favorites.”

And with that, the tears fell and I thought back to the day mom died, the Sunday morning nearly two years ago. “Now I know why the Lord took his day off on Sunday. That must be the day he personally greets his favorites.” In my mind, Mom had to be one of his favorites. Why else would he take her? I do not deny that we are all his favorites, but it is a sweet thought that maybe the Lord was standing there to personally greet her, one of his favorites, as she left her family on earth, for her family in Heaven.

This book brought back a string of memories of the hours and days following mom's death. We all knew that Mom wouldn't want to be left to live on machines. We knew when the time arrived what it was that we must do. But it was still the hardest moment for all of us. To sit there and watch as the heart monitor beeped the last few sounds. To know that she was no longer there. Mom suffered greatly for over 3 years from her cancer and kidney failure. The days following her death brought us as a family closer together than I could ever have imagined. I think we all became much better friends than we were before that day.

And in the next few weeks as I watch my dad join his life with a very sweet woman, I know that my mom wouldn't want it any differently, unless it was her staying here. Kay has brought so much joy to my dad and to her I am eternally grateful. She helped my dad through a time that no one else could have. No one could understand his pain like she could. It is always a weird feeling to know that I will get to go to my dad's wedding...but I am so grateful that it can be to such a wonderful woman!

On that note---I would strongly recommend the book. Just make sure you have a box of Kleenex when you read it. There are tear-jerker moments throughout the story! And don’t worry, I didn’t give anything away. The couple died in the first chapter, the first 10 pages. And the review on Amazon gives more away then I put here.