I married a stranger I met in a hospital waiting room so he wouldn’t die alone—after just one week of marriage, his lawyer handed me his backpack.

On the fourth day, he asked me to marry him.

“Thomas…”

“I know.”

“You’re very sick.”

“Yes.”

“We barely know each other.”

He looked at me for a long moment.

“I know enough.”

“Enough for marriage?”

“Enough to know you’re the kind of person who stays.”

“We barely know each other.”

Two days later, a chaplain married us in Thomas’s hospital room.

I wore a yellow sweater continue reading …