This Is Life

Goodbyes

I woke up and saw Donny still asleep. I pressed a soft kiss to his forehead and went to get the kids and gather the things they'd made for their dad to take with him. I'd gotten a family photo, a photo of just the twins and a photo of Donny and I on our wedding day printed out for him to take with him. The twins had each drawn a picture and had written a message to him on the back, that I wrote out. I had traced out the letters of their names very faintly and helped them write their names for the first time. I got them breakfast and the three of us ate and then Donny came downstairs a bag all packed and wearing his uniform. A tear stung my eye as I was reminded of the day Michael left. He put his bag by the door and I went and got his coffee and took it to him. "One last special wife made coffee before you go."

"You make the best coffee my love. After missing my family, I think I'll miss your coffee the most." I gave a slight chuckle and we both sat down to eat breakfast. There was an obvious sense of sadness at the table and I tried my hardest to keep everyone's spirits up. But I knew it wouldn't be possible. I cleared everything up leaving it in a pile for me to distract myself with later. I checked my watch and realised we had 30 minutes before Donny was to walk out the door. "Let's all go sit on the floor in the living room. Donny, I know the kids have some things they'd like to give you before you leave."

"Alright. I also have some things for you three too." We went and sat down and I handed the twins their things for Donny. "Who wants to go first?"

"I'll let the kids go last. But these are from the three of us." I said handing him the envelope.

"I completely forgot this photo was even taken." He said looking at the family photo. He then flipped it to the one of the twins. "My beautiful kids you both look so adorable in this picture, I'm going to keep it with me in my uniform pocket." Next was the wedding photo. I saw a tear in Donny's eye. "The best day of my life. And nothing can ever beat it."

"Mine too." I whispered as I rested my head on his shoulder. He put his arm around me and kissed the top of my head. "Flo, Mike. Do you two want to show him what you guys made." They both handed him their drawings and he looked at them a smile on his face, tears threatening to fall. I moved to the side to let him hug the twins.

"You two. I love them so much. Come here." He opened his arms and they both sat either side of him and he held them close. "I love you both so much." He said kissing the tops of their heads.

"We love you too daddy." They said in unison. "Daddy, there's messages on the back. We told mommy what we wanted to say but she wrote it down." Michael smiled.

"We wrote our names though! With mommy's help." Flora added. He turned Floras over first and read it to himself.

"I'm going to miss you so much too Flora. And I'm really going to miss baking with you. When I come home, I expect to see some freshly baked cookies on the table for us to eat."

"Yes daddy." She giggled. He then picked up Michael's again.

"Is this you, me, mommy and Flo?"

"Yeah. I drew our family."

"It's perfect Michael." He turned it over and read the letter. I wasn't surprised when he cried. I cried writing it out. "Michael Novitski. You are the most special little boy in the whole world. I love you, mommy and Flo with all my heart. I will never forget about you. And I love telling you stories, it's my favourite thing that every night I get to tell you a new story. I promise that when I come home I will continue to tell you stories about Michael Trojan, and stories about mommy. And I'm sure mommy will be happy to share some funny stories about me while I'm away. Because I know mommy has lots of funny stories about us from when we were dating. I'm going to miss you loads but I'll write to you guys all the time."