“Margo slept in until ten. She loved being in this bed, and one of the reasons was that Eunie still used thick white cotton sheets. It was like being at the Savoy hotel in London. Not that Margo had ever been there, but she imagined that luxury hotels had sheets like these. And Eunie continued to iron them faithfully with their mom’s iron, a weighty workhorse from the sixties. All of them thought it was bewitched, and Eunie often said that when the iron died, that would be her cue to leave this world. She wanted it buried with her.
Death & Other Inconveniences
Well, Dick's dead. Now what?
Margo, his widow, is trying to dodge the tsunami of paperwork coming her way. She doesn't want to deal with the details—why do you think she was married in the first place? Dick always handled the drudgery.
Monty, Margo's ex-husband (the first one, not the dead one), is trying to support Margo—who seems to be finally entering adulthood at the tender age of sixty-two. Their daughter Julia knows Margo needs her, but between work complications, and genius-yet-useless brother complications, Julia's gasping for air already. Dead Dick's ex-wife Carole and their daughter Velma consider a Margo a maneater thanks to a few long-ago indiscretions, so the funeral is a nightmare. Life in New Brunswick lately is a tornado of siblings, children, pets, marriages, health issues, and endless bureaucracies.
And at the centre of it all is Margo, living alone for the very first time, trying to endure everyone else's judgements about the woman she is when she doesn't even know herself. Maybe a cat will help. (The cat doesn't help.)
How old do you have to be to come of age?
....and has anyone seen Dick's will?
COMING SOON
Excerpt
Richard (Dickie Bird) Ambrose Sterling
Fredericton,
New Brunswick
The family is horrified to announce Dick’s sudden and totally expected passing thanks to a chunk of ham sandwich while he sat in his living room recliner watching the Stanley Cup Playoff finals between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Florida Panthers. He would want me to mention that his favourite team won. Go Vegas.
He was born in Bathurst, New Brunswick, to parents Jerry and Doris, I think. They’re dead. Survived by stunned and furious wife Margo (Donovan), a vegetarian hockey hater, his daughter Velma and her latest partner Joanne something, and his long-suffering (in her own mind) first wife, Carole. He never saw his siblings so no need to mention them, other than he called them Larry, Curly, and Moe, along with their spouses April, May, and June. Can you believe that?
Dick was a butcher. He loved barbequing, watching hockey, gambling and drinking beer. Look where that got him.
Arrangements will be announced.