For our tenth anniversary, I gave my husband the watch he had always wanted. He gave me a bottle of perfume—cheap, plastic, and underwhelming. I felt disappointed. I set it aside, unopened, and didn’t think about it again.
Three weeks later, he passed away unexpectedly.
The grief was crushing. I kept thinking about that night—not angry about the gift anymore, just heartbroken over my own reaction. I realized I had let my disappointment overshadow the love between us. I missed everything—his voice, his laugh, even the way he’d remind me to drink water when I got too busy.
