After losing my wife to cancer, I thought I’d lost any chance of having a family or happiness
Then I found a mysterious baby carriage on my doorstep, and what was inside led to the hardest choice of my life.
My name is Jasper and my wife, Emily, was unlike anyone else. She was that person everyone loved right away, you know? The type who’d remember your coffee order after meeting you once and would show up at your door with soup when you were sick.
We’d been together five years before tying the knot, but we wanted to wait until we were truly ready for the whole marriage and family thing.
After years, we’d finally gotten to that perfect spot in life. Good jobs, a house in the suburbs with a yard (Emily’s dream), and enough savings to start thinking about kids. We got straight to the task after our short honeymoon.
Emily had this whole timeline planned out.
“Look, if we start trying in March, the baby will come in winter!” she said excitedly while showing me her calendar one night as we sat on our porch swing. It was raining, her favorite weather.
“Then we could do one of those cute Christmas card announcements,” she continued.
I laughed and pulled her closer. “You’ve really thought this through, huh?”
“Someone has to plan ahead in this relationship,” she teased, poking my chest. “Remember when you tried to surprise me with that weekend trip but forgot to pack anything?”
I chuckled at the time. That was Emily. Always prepared, always thinking ahead. At one point, she’d turned our spare room into a home office but kept measuring it for a crib “just in case.”
She also had secret Pinterest boards full of nursery ideas that she thought I didn’t know about. Anyway, we were ecstatic about the future.
Then everything went sideways. What should have been a routine fertility appointment turned into a week of extra tests. I knew something was wrong when Dr. Grant’s office called to have us come in right away.
The waiting room was empty when we arrived, which should have been my first clue. But thankfully, Dr. Grant didn’t sugarcoat it. I hate being patronized or not being told the truth bluntly.
“The tests showed a seriously advanced cancer,” he said while folding his hands on his desk. “It’s aggressive, and it’s spread significantly. Stage 4.”
Emily’s hand found mine under the desk. Her fingers were ice-cold. “How long do we have?” she asked, and I knew her mind was already making plans.
“Without aggressive treatment, two months. Maybe three,” Dr. Grant said in a gentle voice, but he also sighed. “With treatment, we might buy some more time, just…”
Emily squeezed my hand so hard it hurt. “Okay,” she said, interrupting our doctor in that determined voice she used when facing tough projects at work. I knew she’d want to fight this. “We’d better get started.”
The next two months were hell, but Emily somehow kept smiling. She’d crack jokes during chemo, make friends with all the nurses, and help other patients pick out headscarves when their hair started falling out.
