Danny's Last Bedtime Story

"Once upon a time, a princess traveled to a strange land."

Danny withdrew a finger from beneath the sheet and pointed to me. "Princess." Though his voice was weak, it conveyed his delight.

I laughed. "Okay. If you want, I'll be the princess."

Danny nodded and closed his eyes. From experience, I knew this meant he was ready for me to continue.

"Once upon a time, a princess traveled to a strange land, but no one would be her friend because she had no gold. Even worse, dragons lurked everywhere, and she didn't know how to fight them."

The hospital room's lights were too dim to read by, so I recited the fairytale from memory. The story was Danny's favorite. Mine, too, so I knew it well.

"One day, when the princess had almost given up hope, a knight appeared."

"Shining armor." His pale lips twitched in a smile.

I touched his cheek. "That's right. A knight in shining armor. Very good, Danny."

His eyelids fluttered and shut.

"The knight wooed the princess, and they fell in love. They left the strange land together on his mighty steed. At his castle, everyone adored the princess, but dragons beset the knight, so the princess and the knight worked hard to make their castle bigger and stronger. When they were at last safe from the dragons, they married, and their babies grew up to be the most beautiful children in all the land."

"Children," Danny murmured. He turned his face from me and drifted off to his dreams.

The muted hums and whirs from machines keeping Danny alive comforted me. Losing him crushed my soul, yet I envied him. He was past the pain now. Sleep and stories filled what remained of his life.

A nurse came in, smiled at me, pushed some buttons, and left.

The activity disturbed Danny. His frail head rocked against the pillow, his red-rimmed eyes searching the room until they landed on me.

"Do you want to hear a story?" I brushed wispy hair from his forehead.

"Story," he whispered.

"Once upon a time, a princess traveled to a strange land."

Danny's head eased back into the pillow.

The story always calmed him, at least the way I told it, not fussing over the details. It no longer mattered that the princess was a scholarship student named Stella struggling to fit in at a prestigious university, reminded at every turn she didn't belong. She was ready to give up when a handsome senior caught her eye at a homecoming bonfire. He took her home to meet his family. They became her new family, replacing the one she'd lost to their struggles with drugs and prison.

After the knight earned his degree, he started his own business with the help of clever Princess Stella. Together, they worked hard to make the enterprise a success. Then they married, had two children, and lived happily ever after.

There were dragons, of course. We fought about money, survived bankruptcy, and lost our third baby in her third trimester. Our son set a fire in the garage, leaving him with scars, but it could have been much worse. As an adult, our surviving daughter survived breast cancer. When his beloved parents died, Danny grieved for years.

Reminding him about the dragons we'd fought during our sixty years together was pointless. He'd lost those stories to a disease that stole his memories, so I stuck to what was important: the love that had pulled us through.

To Danny, the story was fresh every time I told it. Each time he woke from his drug-induced slumber, his eyes reflected the love I'd recognized around a boozy homecoming bonfire during my sophomore year. I was his princess, and he was my knight in shining armor forever.

Soon, I'd tell Danny the tale one last time.

I hoped my daughter would tell me stories when it was my time, but not fairytales. I wanted a story about a love that lasted forever, the one about Stella and Danny.