Winston Malone

Winston Malone was 75 years young. He and his wife, Matilda were married for 57 years before she died of breast cancer. They wanted kids but couldn't have any because of her illness. She's had it since she was a young adult, so she had been dealing with it for a while. When it finally took her life, Winston didn't think he could bare to go on with his life, until one night she came to him in a dream.

She told him that he had better not take his own life, and that he needed to keep going on because her death was not in vain. When he woke up the next day, he felt fresh and new, and let himself go on living.

We got to his house finally after about 20 minutes of walking. When we got there, he opened the door, turned on the light, set his keys down, and preceded to go on about his nightly routine which consisted of watching the evening news, eating a snack of peanut butter crackers, brushing is dentures, and finally going to bed. I couldn't sleep, of course, so I went around the house looking a all his photos and getting a sense of who this Winston Malone person is. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Winston had about one hundred or so pictures throughout his house and in photo albums on his bookshelf, so you could only imagine the words I was hearing! The pictures were amazing and a lot of them were of Matilda in different sceneries and poses. I'm guessing she was a model and he was a photographer. The ones where both of them were in them together were so sweet, that I wish I had that kind of love and relationship, but I was too scared that I didn't bother looking for one. Matilda was so beautiful, and Winston was a very handsome man. They looked like the perfect couple.

The next morning Winston woke up and got dressed in his Sunday best to go to Matilda's graveside and set some roses there and talk to her for a while. He spread out a blanket and sat down in front of her head stone and pulled a book out of a picnic basket and started reading it aloud. The book was called 'What Little We Know'. It's about a little boy who's mother died and he never knew his father, so he had to live in an orphanage, and he had to learn so much on his own without the help of anyone. It was a book he's been reading to her every Tuesday morning after breakfast. He's nearly done with it, which tells me that he's been doing that for a while now. I wonder how many more books he's read to her and if she even gets to look down upon him to listen?

He read about two chapters, ate his picnic lunch, then got up to leave. He bent over and kissed her headstone and told her how much he still loves her and misses her everyday and that he will see her next Monday at their special diner. She would be so proud of the man he is today if she could see him now. I look up at the sky and notice a beam of light shining down next to tree that doesn't stand too far from her grave, and i wonder to myself "I wonder if that's her watching him?" Now, I'm sure you're wondering if I can see other ghosts or spirits. Well, since she has already passed on to other side, I cannot see her.

I followed Winston for about three months and he always did the same things every day. Mondays were the diner, Tuesday the graveside, Wednesday the movies, Thursdays he just stayed home and watched tv because he liked the game shows that were on that day, and he loved to test his knowledge, Fridays he would go to the library and browse the books he would love to read to Matilda next, Saturdays he would visit his old friends at the retirement village, and Sundays he would go to church and say a prayer for him to live a long life and be fulfilled so he can go be with his loving wife when he dies.

I thought that was long enough to spend with him, so I left and went on a journey to find my next person to follow.