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reached them, the ski patrol stopped and Stephanie bent quickly to say something to Bill on the sled. His face was hidden by the blanket, and before she could remove it, Brad grabbed her arm and stopped her. The look on his face spoke volumes, and there were tears in his eyes.
    “Steph, don’t…” She looked from him to the others, and she could see that something terrible had happened before they said a word.
    “What happened? Is he okay?” she said with a look of panic, reaching toward her husband again, but Bill hadn’t moved.
    “He collapsed while we were skiing,” Brad explained in a tense voice, looking stricken. “I think he had a heart attack. I gave him CPR until the ski patrol came. I couldn’t revive him,” he said with tears in his eyes as he looked at her.
    “OhmyGod.” She popped her skis off and knelt on the snow then, wondering why they weren’t doing anything to help him, and when she pulled the blanket back to see him, he looked like he was sleeping. Brad shook his head at the two other women then, and they instantly understood. Alyson’s eyes filled with tears as she looked at her husband, and Jean was shocked as she glanced at Fred, and he shook his head too. Stephanie was still kneeling on the snow, holding Bill in her arms, but it was obvious that he was dead. Brad put an arm around her then and helped her stand up, and told her he hadn’t suffered. He said Bill had died instantly, as Stephanie stared at him in disbelief.
    “That can’t be…he’s fine…he doesn’t have a heart problem. He had a checkup last week.” As though saying that would cancel what had just occurred, but it didn’t.
    “That happens sometimes,” Brad said gently. The ski patrol slowly led the sled away toward the first aid station, as Brad held Stephanie and she began to cry. This couldn’t be happening, she kept thinking to herself. It wasn’t true. Bill was fifty-two years old, he couldn’t be dead. She tried to think of what he had said to her that morning when he went off with the others. Not “I love you,” or any tender words, just “Thanks” when she wished him a nice run. He hadn’t kissed her goodbye, she hadn’t tried to kiss him. It hadn’t even dawned on her that something could go wrong and she’d never see him alive again. All he said was “Thanks,” and now he was dead. She felt like a robot as she walked into the ski patrol station with the others. They had taken Bill inside on a stretcher by then, and put him in a small private room. One of the men from the ski patrol led her in, and she stood next to Bill, looking at him, unable to believe what had just happened. The man she had once loved and been married to for twenty-six years was dead. They hadn’t been really happy in seven years, but they had stayed together. They loved each other in a quiet unspoken way. They expected to be together forever. He was the father of her children…and now he was dead. Stephanie just stood there looking at him, and gently touched his face as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Chapter 2
    Alyson went to their hotel to pack for them, and check them out of the hotel, while Stephanie stayed with Bill, and Jean, Brad, and Fred were with her at the ski patrol station. Fred and Brad filled out the necessary papers, and signed the accident report. And Brad spoke to the head of the ski patrol quietly about making arrangements to have Bill taken to the city by ambulance to the funeral home there. Stephanie heard it all from a great distance, and everything around her was a blur. She stared at Jean as though she didn’t understand.
    “How could that happen?” she said for the tenth time in an hour. She looked as though she were in shock, and when the ambulance came, Stephanie couldn’t stop crying. Their marriage hadn’t been perfect, and they hadn’t really been happy in a long time, but she had loved him, and she never expected him to die. They had wasted so much time being disconnected from each