“All this to say: I am forty-three years old. I may yet live another forty. What do I do with those years? How do I fill them without Lexy? When I come to tell the story of my life, there will be a line, creased and blurred and soft with age, where she stops. If I win the lottery, if I father a child, if I lose the use of my legs, it will be after she has finished knowing me. "When I get to Heaven", my grandmother used to say, widowed at thirty-nine, "your grandfather won't even recognize me.” IfsYearsMayChildrenStoriesUseAgeUsedThreeFatherWinningHeavenLosesLinesKnowingLegsFinishedNineThirtyGrandmotherFortyThree YearsGrandfatherMy GrandmotherLotteryStory Of My LifeThree Year OldsWidowed Book:The Dogs of Babel Source: The Dogs of Babel
“I remember my wife in white.' It just made people weep to hear it...Everybody just thought it was the saddest sentence that was ever written. And it didn't matter if I never wrote another word. This one sentence had put an end to the need for any future sentences. I had said it all.” PeopleIfsNeedsMadeSaidEndsMatterRememberWhiteWifeWrittenSentencesMy WifeSaddestOne Sentence Author:Carolyn Parkhurst
“There would be hard times, but what did I care if we had hard times? The branches of my love were wide, and they caught the rain and the snow. We would be okay, the two of us together. We would be okay.” IfsTwoHardWould BeCareTogetherRainOkayCaughtWideSnowBranchesHard TimesI CareTwo Of Us Book:The Dogs of Babel Source: The Dogs of Babel
“The conclusion I have reached is that, above all, dogs are witnesses. They are allowed access to our most private moments. They are there when we think we are alone. Think of what they could tell us. They sit on the laps of presidents. They see acts of love and violence, quarrels and feuds, and the secret play of children. If they could tell us everything they have seen, all of the gaps of our lives would stitch themselves together.” IfsThinkingChildrenPlayMomentsTogetherPresidentSecretOur LivesViolenceDogAccessConclusionWitnessGapsQuarrelsLapActs Of LoveStitchesFeuds Book:The Dogs of Babel Source: The Dogs of Babel
