There’s a Shadow Hanging Over Me

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PHOTO PROMPT © Jellico’s Stationhouse

I’ll never be able to compete with his lost love.

She died.

She’s still here in everything we do, everywhere we go.  Whenever we socialise, the air is weighty with her presence and memories of a former life.

I know he loves me.

The home we share still bears her mark; the things they bought together in happy times.  It’d be easier if they’d divorced, despising each other.

Knowing they didn’t want to part, that he would still be with her now if he could, is difficult to live with.

I know he loves me, but he loved her more.

Word Count: 100

Written for Friday Fictioneers hosted by Rochelle. Read the other entries here.

51 thoughts on “There’s a Shadow Hanging Over Me”

  13. Christine Goodnough says:
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    This is a great capture of jealousy and resentment. Your narrator seems very self-absorbed — perhaps should have waited to marry him until she understood his loss and grief a little better.

    Or might his attitude the problem? My mom-in-law told me once that when she married dad she got his mother — deceased, but the paragon of all virtues — in the deal. Definitely didn’t make for marital harmony.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Rowena says:
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    This was very well done. Like others I too know a similar story. My aunt died suddenly when she was 36. She was exceptionally pretty and looked like Goldie Hawn. She and her husband couldn’t have kids and she was a paediatric nurse so that was pretty hard on them and they were very close. He adored her and was rather possessive. Anyway, after no contact with his family since she died something like 35 years ago, his niece contacted us offering us her rings.
    Found out that her husband had met someone else but never married her. I think he also said something to my aunt about “Lyn will always be my girl”.
    What would be hard too is if there were kids involved and all Mum’s stuff is still around.
    It would take someone very special to handle that…a Carol Brady perhaps??
    xx Rowena

    Liked by 3 people

    • Christine Goodnough says:
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      I’ve seen a lot of second marriages that work fine without “He loved her more” obsession or comparison, and you know if a couple has shared life for so many years they aren’t just going to “forget her” or “get over it.” But I guess some like your uncle just can’t — or won’t — move on and open up their heart to someone new? It’s a wonder the second lady stayed. It would be hard to know you’re just filling in because he needs to be with someone.

      In the case of divorce, I’ve heard of couples years later running into each other, the acid neutralized by then, so they abandon their current spouses and get back together. After all the years of hearing him gripe about all the nasty stuff she did, that would be a shock!

      Liked by 2 people

      • Rowena says:
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        People are strange, aren’t they. I have no idea why the other woman stayed with him either. He was a very possessive man and kept my aunt away from our family and these days you’d probably be asking her questions about domestic violence. That said, I’ve heard she felt more comfortable with his family so there might not be anything else to it. Families can be very weird and difficult to understand. Mine would certainly challenge the psychologists DSM manual!! They’d have to rewrite it.

        Liked by 2 people

  18. goroyboy says:
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    Clare, Clare, Clare, talk about in your face… I was “him” and she died in a car wreck two days before Christmas. I had gone out to by an engagement ring.. Almost 20 years with my current with, the answer is, how could I love “her” more, as no love compares to the one that is cultivated over a lifetime of growing, sharing, and sacrifice. Love lost in my opinion has no comparison to Love That Is:) peace to you

    Liked by 3 people

  21. gahlearner says:
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    Wonderful comments for a great story, Clare. Competing with the past is always difficult and it’s easy to feel second best. I think it’s very much up to the one who has the haunting past to reassure his or her partner that people can love deeply more than once and that this doesn’t have to take away from the ‘present’ love. Makes great romance stories, too. 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  23. Michael Wynn says:
    Reply

    That’s quite a burden she carries, it’s sad she can’t be reassured by him, how hard is he trying or is she being paranoid? Hopefully she’ll relax and find a way to enjoy their relationship without the shadow of his dead ex hanging over things. I liked the way she kept returning to her doubts and kept trying to convince herself it would be alright.

    Liked by 1 person

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