Memories Are Forever

Memories are forever.
The words swirled in Hannah’s mind. She knew she would never forget Jason, the feel of his loving embrace, the soft tones of his voice, the hard planes of his body.
Memories are what you have to settle for when the real thing is gone; Hannah thought bitterly.
The memories of that fatal hospital visit still brought gut-wrenching pain.
“Cancer” the doctor had said so, so calmly.
But all Hannah had heard was that Jason only had two months to live.
Even reliving the memory, Hannah broke down sobbing. She fell to the ground and hugged her knees to her chest.
How could this have happened to someone so young? Jason was only twenty-five. Cancer was supposed to happen to couples who have had an entire lifetime together, that had been able to accomplish what they wanted to accomplish, lived out their dreams.
Not couples who had only had a few, short years together.
Jason and Hannah had met when they were seventeen, friends of a mutual friend. Jason had always been shy. In fact, it was Hannah who had come up to Jason and said “I like you, I’ll pick you up at eight.”
What Jason didn’t know is that was Hannah’s test for potential boyfriends. And he also didn’t know that he had passed flawlessly.
It was a very awkward first date, but Hannah didn’t give up. They had many, many more dates, and then, four years later, he proposed.
Their wedding was arranged to be next week.
Hannah through her engagement ring across the room. Forever meant absolutely nothing. Forever was destroyed as soon as the countdown began.
Exactly two months and three hours. That’s how long Jason suffered.
I should be happier. He isn’t suffering anymore, Hannah thought. I’m just being selfish.
The ringing of the phone interrupted her reveries.
“Hello?” She asked in a shaky voice.
“Excuse me, we have received notification of the death of Mr. Jason Jackson...”
Hannah hung up the phone, and unplugged it from the jack.
The door knocked.
“Go away!” She yelled, crying.
The knocking started up again.
She tore the door open. “I said go away,” she said viciously.
Her bad mood only increased when she saw who was at the door.
“Janet, what the hell are you doing here?” She asked angrily, wiping away her tears.
Her fiancé’s twin sister (and in Hannah’s mind, the devil) had a smirk on her face.
“I’ve come to tell you exactly what I think of you, you gold digger!”
“Huh?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know that Jason has a three million dollar life insurance policy!” She stamped her foot.
Hannah rubbed her eyes and groaned. “Janet, you’re insane.” She closed the door and locked it. She drew the curtains, turned off all the lights, and feeling suddenly exhausted, went to her bedroom.
This was the first time she had mustered the courage to come into the room, other than grabbing a pair of clothes and getting out almost immediately.
The pillows and blanket were still arranged exactly the way it was the day that Jason was admitted into the hospital. His shirt was still laying on the side of the bed from where they panicked when he had difficulty breathing and ripped it off.
A lump grew in Hannah’s throat as she walked over to his side of the bed. It still smelled like him, like soap and laundry detergent. An honest man’s smell.
She fell on to the bed sobbing, breathing in his scent. From the corner of her eye, she could see something shining underneath the pillow.
It was a locket. Just a simple, gold locket with a heart on the end. She furrowed her eyebrows. She had never seen it before.
She opened it and saw the painstaking calligraphic writing, spelling out the phrase “Memories are forever. I’ll never be gone, my beautiful Hannah. I love you forever.”.
It was the words on the beautiful locket that gave Hannah the strength to make it through the rest of her life without Jason.
It was hard, but, in the cliché, Jason was alive in her heart. He would die only when her own heart stopped beating.
It was possible to live again.