“Why do you have this?”
“Because Robert asked me to keep it.”
“For twelve years?”
Arthur nodded.
“Why?”
He gave me a sad smile.
“Because he hoped you would eventually come to Australia.”
I stared at him.
Arthur explained that Robert remembered how much I had always wanted to travel.
He worried that after his death, I would spend the rest of my life taking care of everyone except myself.
“He said you gave everything away,” Arthur told me. “Your time. Your money. Your energy.”
My throat tightened.
“He said you were happiest whenever you planned trips you never actually took.”
Then Arthur said something I wasn’t prepared for.
“Robert wrote that his biggest regret wasn’t dying before retirement. It was helping you believe life could always be postponed.”
Tears filled my eyes.
I finally opened the envelope.
The letter was four pages long.
I couldn’t read all of it without stopping.
