Flash

Halcyon Days

The Sicilian Storyteller

Written for Friday Fictioneers.
The challenge: to write a story of 100 words or less,
as inspired by the photo prompt below. Here is my story.

Photo Prompt © Susan Rouchard

After the wake, a few of us went back to our sister-in-law’s house. A question tap-danced in my brain: now that my husband’s brother was dead, was his widow still our sister-in-law or will she eventually be erased from the familial slate, ties severed, connections lost?

The room which they call ‘the office’ was a confusion of books, photo albums and memorabilia piled high like Babel.

Flipping through yellowed snapshots, we spotted her, the widow, in every image …. halcyon days when we all spoke the language of youth and happiness …. and my question was answered.

She is family.

NAR©2024
100 Words

12 April 2024

This is Jim Capaldi with “Old Photographs”

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.

51 thoughts on “Halcyon Days”

  2. I’ve wondered–and experienced–that kind of thing too. Once the ‘blood-relatives’ had passed away, the connection to their spouses faded. I guess it’s also a matter of distance.

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  5. Dear Nancy,

    Our family has faced that self-same question. When my husband’s brother died in a car crash we never thought of his widow as anything other than family. She’s remarried twice and we’ve just accepted the new husband as family (even if the second husband turned out to be a jerk. ;)) Lovely story.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

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  7. Nancy, I’m glad you concluded, “she is family.”

    One needs to make a deliberate choice for the familial ties to be broken. It is healthy and honorable to Bill and Jim for the relationship to move forward. Grief’s emotions expressed well.

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    1. An excellent point you make about cutting ties being a deliberate choice, Manette. That is definitely not part of our plan. In fact tomorrow we will visit our sister-in-law with our 4 year old granddaughter who makes everything just a little bit brighter.

      Thanks for your very thoughtful comments.

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      1. That’s wonderful. I’m sure your sister-in-law will appreciate the visit.
        Children can help ground us during grief. It would have been tougher to keep my wits without my grandchildren when I was walking through the earliest part of my grieving. Many times I thought I was losing it, but it was close friends and family who continued to check in on me, just sat with me, or took me out to dinner that helped me continue to breathe.

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  15. Of course, she is family. And if they have children, even more so! Of course, if she is a miserable sort who wreaks havoc and is unsociable, she might slowly disappear into the background.

    Small note. She might worry she will be pushed aside over time… but that happens more with friends than family.

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    1. What a brilliant point you brought up and something I failed to mention: children! Yes, they have children and so do we. Our kids grew up together and were more like brothers and sisters than cousins. Having fathers who were identical twins also played a big part …. they all looked very much alike, again more like siblings than cousins.

      They’re all grown now with children of their own and don’t get together as much as they would like. The re-bonding that took place during this sad time was a beautiful sight. They were all pallbearers. I just gave myself chills writing that.

      Thanks so much, Dale!

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      1. I think Bill and Jim’s case is particularly poignant. I don’t see how Jim’s wife could be any less family without him, especially since all of your kids are so close.

        It’s normal that they have lives of their own and can’t get together as often but that bond remains.

        I know of what I speak. Almost all of Mick’s friends have slowly disappeared – as I expected them to. He had no family, other than his mother and now that she’s gone; that’s it.

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  18. Great question. First impression was , perhaps, she was not particularly popular. But the story ending confirmed she was loved by all.

    I do wonder though, on divorce are the relative tags, in-laws etc, still valid?

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    1. It is interesting, isn’t it? I’ve heard people use the terms “ex-mother-in-law” or “former sister-in-law”, but that was always after a divorce. If anything, I’m inclined to believe a death in the family would result in stronger bonds.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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      2. After writing a draft, I thought I should check to see if I was following the prompt correctly. I left questions for the host as to whether it’s supposed to be prose only, or could be free-verse poetry; and whether it must be in story-form (beginning, middle, end) or could be a description of the photo and reflections of the author/poet. I suspect what I wrote does NOT fit the prompt–however, I wonder if I could still use the photo, and go with my poem, perhaps for NaPoWriMo… If you know the answers to these questions, could you answer them?

        OR, I may be able to tweak it into story format…I’ve got the juice, haha!

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