The One After [SHAWN MENDES]

Chapter 88

"Is it nice having your boyfriend in town?" my dad asked as we sat on his stoop handing out candy to the neighborhood trick-or-treaters.

"Very, but I'll have to get used to the long-distance thing if we stay together. It might be tough."

"I believe that when two people are in love, they can make anything work."

I smiled at my father. "I don't know if that's true, but I appreciate the concept. Did you and Mom ever have obstacles to overcome?"

"Of course! Every couple struggles sometimes."

I waited for him to elaborate before pushing for more info. "Do you have an example?"

He looked down at his hands. "As you know, we met when we were in our late teens. She came to Toronto for college and I was apprenticing at Harbord Bakery. One night I was out with my friends at a bar near Centennial, where she was in school, and we locked eyes from across the room and that was it; I knew I'd found the one."

"She told me she thought the same thing," I said softly, "but how was that an obstacle?"

"We'd been dating a few months when she showed up at the bakery before opening. I was making some babka and the owner let her in the kitchen, probably because he could tell she was upset. We stepped into the alley to talk and she told me she was pregnant."

My mom didn't have me when she was that young, so a knot formed in my stomach. "Oh no."

"I did what I thought was right and told her we'd get married as soon as we could. I promised her I'd take care of her and the baby and that everything would be okay."

"But?"

"But that's not what she wanted. She didn't want to be a mom at nineteen, and marrying before completing her education was not an option for her. She had goals and dreams which she was determined to pursue."

I nodded. "That's understandable."

"It is, but at the time I didn't see it that way. I'd been raised Catholic and even though I respected a woman's right to choose, I felt uncomfortable with her terminating the pregnancy. And I told her this."

"I bet she got mad."

He whistled loudly. "Did she ever! She yelled at me about how it was her body and her future that would be impacted the most. It's not that the decision was easy for her, but it was her decision to make, not mine."

"Obviously you two worked through it."

"Yes, Lucy, we did, but it took time. I stayed with her during the abortion, but I focused too much on my own feelings and not enough on hers, so things got rough. A few months later we broke up, and it took over a year for us to find our way back to each other. After she died, I hated myself for losing that time with her. An extra year would have been wonderful."

A group of children approached us for candy, so we put the heavy conversation on hold until they were gone. "Did you accept her decision later?"

"Eventually. It was a sore spot in our marriage at first, but she opened my eyes to a lot of things socially and politically, and by the time we had you, I knew she'd done what she needed to and that it was okay. Women shouldn't have to continue a pregnancy if they don't want to. I still feel uncomfortable with the idea of abortion from a religious standpoint, but I will fight for every woman's right to choose. I'm appalled by what's happening in the US right now."

"Same. They're moving in the wrong direction," I said bitterly. "I'm so sorry the two of you went through that, but if she'd had the baby and Mom resented what she'd given up, you might not have stayed together and I might not be here."