She kissed the scars on his skin.

Chapter 31

Our grandchildren are gathered around us along with our kids. It's our 50th wedding anniversary and the sun is shining down on us. Vic and Danielle, Mike and Alysha and Jaime and Jess are here too. It's perfect. Almost exactly what I saw in that dream all those years ago. Of course we weren't sure we would ever get this far. My cancer came back a few years later but once again I beat it. Tony was diagnosed with angina a couple of years ago and has to take things easy nowadays but we keep plodding on, content just to be together. Our kids Zara and Nathan are both in their 40's now with two little ones each. Zara has Sophia and Kelly and Nathan has Dylan and Daisy. We both know how blessed we are to have been so lucky after what we both went through. I squeeze Tony's hand and look at the matching tattoos we had done after I left hospital the first time. Right after he proposed in fact.

By your side, always.

It became our mantra whenever things got rough. It still is. Fifty years I've been married to my rock. The man who loved me when I thought I was unlovable. The man who showed me how to love myself. The man who I helped to save and who saved me right back. My Tony.
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