Disclaimer:  Pete and Kitty are copyright of Marvel Comics.  I've used them without telling—shh!  This story belongs to me.  Please ask before placing on your page.
 
 

    I remember the first time I knew I loved you.  You were laughing at something silly I said, long brown hair thrown over your shoulder.   Your eyes were twinkling, so full of life.  Words couldn't express the way my heart felt.

    People say it so much, but for me it is true, I don't think I knew love—deep, pure, forever—until I knew you.  I opened my mouth, but no words came out.  But that sound that I made, you understood its meaning.  You held me and kissed me and, in that moment, my soul found its home.

    I remember the last time you touched me.  I was in so much pain, but I was trying to hide it so you wouldn't know.  Every nerve ending in my body was on fire as I forced the words out, "I love you."  And in the midst of my transformation, I heard you tell me that you'd love me until the end of time.

    I couldn't leave you, Kitty.  Not until I knew you'd be okay.  So I decided to stay in this waiting area, between the present and Eternity.

    Remember that night that you curled up on our bed, clutching my shirt against your chest, and sobbed because you couldn't remember my scent?  And then, you knew I was holding you.   At that moment, the walls between our worlds were so thin I could almost feel the heat from your body as I held you.

    It wasn't the last time I was there for you.  I remember half a thousand times that I reached out to you, almost expecting you to feel the brush on your cheek, the warmth of my hand on yours, to see you turn in my direction.  I never was able to physically touch you but I was there for all the important moments in your life.  And you knew it, even if your scientific brain never could explain it.  The heart has its own reason, therefore reason knows nothing.  You always believed it.

     There was a moment at your wedding that I especially remember.  You were watching as Jack danced with his mother and you missed me.  Missed me like you hadn't missed me in years, so deep that it felt like he hadn't come into your life at all.  Somehow breaking past the invisible wall that separated us, I held you for a brief second, and whispered to your soul "I'm happy for you."  It's the truth, Kitty, I was happy for you. Happy that you found somebody to build your dreams around, to build a life with.  Someone who was wise enough to realize that your heart was big enough to hold love for two people.

     I remember the way Jack left his mother and came over to you.  Remember what he whispered?  "I'd never want to love a woman who stopped loving a poor bloke just because he had the misfortune to die on her."

    He never made you feel bad for loving me, never asked you to compare us, never was jealous of us.  He knew that you loved him and that he loved you.  He saw the way you held on to me as a sign that your heart was so strong that even after he was gone, you'd remember him.  You truly knew how to love.

     I was there the night that Anna went from your world into mine.  I saw Death heading towards her crib and I watched as Death transformed her.  Oh, how I wish you could have seen that moment, when your baby's soul left her body.  To your imperfect understanding of life and death, that was the scariest, darkest, ugliest moment of her life.  But to someone on this side, it is the most beautiful moment of a lifetime.  Her whole body was glowing.  She laughed as she was changed.  Anna was never afraid, never in any pain, and she was never alone.  Until she went to the other side, she was with me, watching over you.

     You remember me in the days following Anna's death.  I was there when you couldn't express your thoughts and feelings to Jack.  I held you when grief had separated you from his arms.  I wore your tears when you couldn't stop crying.  And I was the one that gave you the courage to turn back to him.

     I was with you as you gave birth again, and I stood guard over your children day and night.  I saw all those hours that you watched them sleep, afraid to leave them.  You tried to make their lives so safe and wonderful.

    Remember that moment, when you were teaching David to ride a bike, the moment that you had to let go and watch him go off on his own?  I saw the little tear that dropped onto your cheek.  He was filled with joy, but you knew it was just one of many moments that you would have to let go.  Somehow, you just had to trust that he wouldn't crash and get hurt or that, if he fell down, you would be there to help him get back on his bike.  He pedaled down the street never knowing the bittersweet pride you felt.

     I was there for all the weddings, the grandchildren, and the ups and downs.  I was there the night that Jack had his heart attack and drove off the road.  He didn't leave this world alone, like you thought.   His last thoughts were of you.

     I held on to you during the days that followed.  All three of us did.  And when it was time, Jack told me that he had had a lifetime of love with you, and that he would wait on the other side until he saw you again.  Father took daughter's hand and together they stepped into the light.

     As you got older, your memories were all you had of the life you led and the hearts you loved.  You shared them whenever you had the chance, repeated them to whoever would listen.  Part of you hoped that by sharing the time you spent with them your friends and family would remain in people's memories, thus living on even after your death.  But after a while, those around you tuned you out, tired of the same stories and memories.  No one should be the last of their generation, trying desperately to make the world remember what happened in a time that they find irrelevant.

    Gradually, your memories became your existence.  You built your world around those who touched your heart, happy to be with them again. And then that world faded away, leaving you with memories that were hazy and distant.  You couldn't tell your children from the staff at the nursing home.  I was there, helping you with the little miracles—remembering your grandchildren's name, remembering how your daughter loved to have her hair brushed, the lullaby you sung to your son.  Those memories will be held on to tightly in the coming years.

     Your eyes still twinkle, my love.  Your hair is still long and soft.  Your heart is still the same.  Time's passage could never change the one that I love.  Even if we couldn't spend our lifetime together, I am honored to have been by your side every day of your life.

    We are born to die, but even that can't stop love.  Love is the reason people are born, it is the reason people hope.  It is the reason the world is changed.  And love's power surpasses the grave.  This existence has taught me that.

    And Kitty, tonight, as you truly see me for the first time in seventy years and can't remember me, know this-- I'm here until you can remember.   I'm going to help you transform, become vibrant again.  And then, hand in hand, we will walk together into the golden light.