An elderly man lay dying in his bed. While suffering the agonies of impending death, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite pierogi with fried onions wafting up the stairs.
He gathered his remaining strength, and lifted himself from the bed. Gripping the railing with both hands, he crawled downstairs.
Downstairs, he leaned against the door frame, gazing into the kitchen, where if not for death's agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven, for there, spread out upon waxed paper on the kitchen table were hundreds of his favorite pierogi.
Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of love from his wife of sixty years, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man?
He threw himself towards the table, landing on his knees in a crumpled posture. His parched lips parted, the wondrous taste of the pierogi was already in his mouth. With a trembling hand he reached up to the edge of the table, when suddenly he was smacked with a wooden spoon by his wife.
"Back off!" she said. "Those are for the funeral."
We do survive every moment, after all, except the last one.
~John Updike
6 comments:
Ohhh, that's cold ! Funny, but cold. My son Josh is still laughing.
DM..I just wanted to get away from writing about all the idiocy going on right now, and I sincerely hope that it was not insensitive.
I've already had someone ask me in an email what it meant! LOL
I don't know..I just thought that there was a moral there, somewhere, and a certain irony in the quote. :)
Too funny, Jan! I recently watched a movie called (I think) Summer's last wine. It's a British dark comedy and in it the wife puts her husband's body out in the shed because she doesn't want his cronies who come to pay their respects, to track up her carpet. Much like this woman!
Linda..that sounds interesting.
I really enjoy the Britsh shows, and I'll have to be on the look-out for that one! :)
Oh, I love pierogen! That was cruel of her, but all too real, unfortunately.
DC..yes, they're delicious!
All too real, indeed.
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