A woman wakes during the night to
find that her husband is not in bed.
She puts on her robe and goes
downstairs to look for him. She finds
him sitting at the kitchen table with a
hot cup of coffee in front of him. He
appears to be in deep thought, just
staring at the wall. She watches as he
wipes a tear from his eye and takes a
sip of his coffee.
‘What’s the matter, dear?’ she
whispers as she steps into the room.
‘Why are you down here at this time
of night?’
The husband looks up from his
coffee, ’It’s the 20th anniversary of
the day we met.’
She can’t believe he has remembered
and starts to tear up.
The husband continues, ‘Do you
remember 20 years ago when we
started dating? I was 18 and you were
only 16,’ he says solemnly.
Once again, the wife is touched to
tears. ‘Yes, I do,’ she replies.
The husband pauses. The words were
not coming easily. ‘Do you remember
when your father caught us in the
back seat of my car?’
‘Yes, I remember,’ said the wife,
lowering herself into the chair beside
him.
The husband continued. ‘Do you
remember when he shoved the
shotgun in my face and said, “Either
you marry my daughter or I will send
you to prison for 20 years?’
‘I remember that, too,’ she replied
softly. He wiped another tear from his
cheek and said,
‘I would have gotten out today.