They say that in heaven we all
are thirty-five and gorgeous.

That, of course, is for those
who die older than that.

Both were older than that
when they departed but not

by much. He was the young-
er of the two at one week

shy of forty-four and she was
forty-nine, but that is close

enough and they were both
beautiful and remain exactly

that for those who are here
and continue to love them.

I think that talk of being
thirty-five is wishful think-

ing, but, for sure, those two
will ever be close enough to

the mythic thirty-five and
the rest of us remain beautiful

and gorgeous to loved ones no
matter how old we get before

dying as we necessarily will do.
There was an eighty-eight year

old woman dying of cancer who
joked that her husband was flirt-

ing with her and that he was.
After she died, he remembered

her as the beautiful thirty-
five year old who flirted with

him and made him feel like a
thirty-five year old, too, even

when he was ninety-three, the
year he died. So I guess all

that talk of heaven is true
right now, isn’t it?