The proposal had been nothing special. In one way, it could barely be called a proposal. They had been sitting in his living room one evening when the idea had come up. They had discussed it for a couple of hours, and decided that it made sense.
The wedding had been nothing special. They’d both been married before and they didn’t want to have to go through all the fuss and bother of a complicated wedding. He told the children that she looked very pretty in her dress, even though the swell of pregnancy was clearly noticeable. She told them that he looked very smart in his suit, and joked that he even managed a tie.
They both sold their houses and bought one together. Hers had been up for sale anyway, and by silent agreement they knew that they couldn’t stay in his. The house they bought was nothing special.
When they went out together, there was nothing special about them. No heads would turn to look at them, unless one of the kids was making a fuss. To all outside observers, they looked like a normal family.
Their short life together had been nothing special. They went to work, raised their children and knew what topics of conversation to stay well away from. They knew when to give each other their own space, and when the other needed them.
The children, they acknowledged, were something special.
They provided the last links and physical evidence of a time that had been special for them both. There were five in total
Three were his; two were hers.
Amanda knew that she wasn’t her mother and resented her for it.
Nicholas cried when he couldn’t remember his mother’s face.
Amy refused to let anyone take over her father’s job of reading her bedtime stories.
Lily had always asked questions about her mother, having been left with hazy memories of this woman.
Jack had never met his father, and all he knew was that only Amy had the same surname as him.
When he died, his funeral was nothing special. They buried him next to his children’s mother, the woman he had loved until his death. It was a cold December morning, and snow had started to fall as they left the cemetery.
She knows that when she dies, there will be nothing special for her either. She will be buried next to the father of her children, the man she still loves. She believes that the sun will be shinning.
Samantha Jackson watched the children in front of her. Amanda was seventeen now, and would soon be an adult, while Jack, her baby, was just seven. This was their first Christmas without Daniel, and it was nothing special.