Life stopped for Christian Folly on January 1, 2000, the first day of the new millennium. His wife Cecile, with whom he had shared his life and bed for 49 years, died on that day.
Actually, she suffered a massive stroke, so it was more like she dropped dead all of a sudden while preparing their dinner in the kitchen. She was already unconscious when he found her on the floor. Her death felt so unreal to Christian that he refused to believe she was truly gone. He refused to get rid of her clothes and even her toothbrush and kept everything in order, so that she could use it on the day she returned in the future - whenever that was, in this life or the next.
Perhaps he acted like this out of sheer guilt: Was it possible that Cecile had called for help and he hadn't heard her in the living room, where he had been watching TV? The doctors at the hospital had assured him that there was nothing anyone could have done to save her life.
So it was back luck that at the age of 70, he was all by himself for the first time in his life.
He had a daughter and two grandchildren, but they lived 2,000 miles away. Although his son-in-law had told him that there would always be a free room in his house in case he wanted company, he still lived in the house he had been born in, and he intended to die in it as well.
That meant he had to learn things he had never done before. Washing his clothes without ruining them was one thing, cooking his meals another. He had always been hopeless in the kitchen and relied on Cecile.
It took him months to admit that he had a problem. By then, he had spent a lot of money on takeout food and gained almost 20 pounds as a result. He longed for a home-cooked meal, but the thing was, he could not see anybody cook it for him anytime in the future.
Of course, he could have started dating again. There were many widows who were looking for a new love, and they didn't even bother to do it clandestinely in the newspapers, but in the broad daylight on the cemeteries. He had seen widowers do the same. He thought it was disgusting to take advantage of someone's death, presenting the grieving widow with one's card shortly after her husband's funeral, saying something like, "If you should ever need any help in the future..."
So he decided not to stress himself out and find a new companion. Besides, he was still convinced that he would see his wife again, and Cecile would not forgive him if he went out with anyone else or let anyone sleep in her bed or use her pans in the kitchen.
He would remain a loner until the day he died.