I met Bill one night while playing Yahtzee online. With 13 years in an abusive marriage, the last thing I wanted was to get involved with a guy. In fact, I found that I really loved being single. So I was polite, but not chatty or flirty the night we met. Thankfully he was the same. We talked of family, and our lives. He too had been divorced for a while. He worked on an offshore oil rig, 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off. He had just come off 2 weeks on the rig the night we met.
Each night for the next 2 weeks we'd find ourselves in Yahtzee together. By the end of the second week we'd talk more than we played. We found that we had so much in common and talking to him was something I looked forward to daily. Before long months had gone by, and I found myself falling in love...like I'd never felt before. Bill said he felt the same way. We planned to meet, and we talked about a future together.
Bill's little sister Debbie lived in Nevada, and he had flown out there to be with her. Debbie's husband Danny, of only a few years, was dying of cancer. Each night Bill and I would talk online. Debbie's husband died in July of 2002. She was terribly distraught, and Bill remained with her until he felt she was able to be alone.
Three weeks later their father had been in a terrible car accident, and wasn't expected to live. Bill & Debbie flew home to Louisiana to be with their dad. After losing my own father, I knew how hard a time this was for both of them. A few days after they'd gotten home, their father died. I had spent many long hours consoling both Bill and Debbie.
Little did anyone realize, that when Bill returned to Louisiana he'd been bitten by a mosquito. Not just any kind, but one carrying the deadly West Nile Virus. Debbie called me in a panic two days after they'd gotten to Louisiana. Bill had been hospitalized with what they thought was the flu. When she called me I was in Pennsylvania visiting my family. The doctors didn't think it was anything to worry about until he continued to get worse. All too late they realized it was West Nile and not the flu.
By the time I could schedule a flight out to Louisiana, Bill was gone. I guess the only thing that got me through those days was my friendship with Debbie. In a short period of time she'd lost not just her beloved husband, but her father and favorite brother too. My grief seemed painfully less important than hers, and I tried to focus on what I could do for her. What might have been a sister-in-law relationship had turned into a sisterly relationship.
