The Day Grief Turned Into a Cry for Help

I watched my daughter-in-law dump a leather suitcase into the lake and speed away. When I heard the sound coming from inside, my legs gave out, and I started praying I was wrong.

It was a quiet October evening in our small lakeside town, the kind where nothing ever happens. I stood on the porch of the house where I’d raised my only son — the same house that felt unbearably empty since we buried him six months earlier.

The lake was calm, reflecting the autumn trees like a painting, when a car roared down the gravel road. Dust flew. Tires screeched. Cynthia — my son’s widow — slammed to a stop. She dragged out a heavy brown leather suitcase, the one I’d given her as a wedding gift.

Without looking back, she hurled it into the water. It floated briefly, then sank. She ran, tires squealing, dust swirling, leaving me frozen in disbelief.

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