My Last Name

by Eric M. Schumacher

of striving after the wind and felt the sting of the thorn and the thistle, you learn that, as the Preacher says, “There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour.” That is what Everett had become—a young man again, a man who knew how to eat and drink and enjoy good. Everett had aged well through his losses, and passed through old age, and regained a youthfulness that only seemed to grow. So he was young enough to marry an old woman like me. That is why our marriage worked: he could lead me through what another, younger man could not. And, I think, he helped me to become young again, even in my old age.