A Woman Apart

Lush lawns.  Designer landscaping.  Perfect children.  All the trappings but an empty home.  A home where silence begins.  The silence of the heart.  But not with the children.

So many years have passed.  Somehow...some way...she found the courage to be honest.  Her heart had grown lonely since that September day.  The unmowed grass, a broken mower they said.  Half finished.  She wondered if it was a sign at the wedding place.

She remembers the house filled with love.  Of children, of pets of home.  She liked being busy, needed.  She liked working, grad school, house work, community involvement.  But children grow up.  She had to as well.  That is if she were to survive.

She remembers Jacqueline Kennedy alone, too.  She had Maurice.  Beth was of self.  Her innocence lost.  Of all that could be.  Everyone has disappointments.

The evenings grow cold.  Dark.  Empty.  She hoped.  Wondered if there was more.  She was a woman apart.