It began to snow, and I thought we should do something that people do when it snows. So we laced up stiff boots, leashed up our dogs, and made for the mounds of white that had already turned our neighborhood into a movie set, like Jimmy Stewart might come shooshing down the sidewalk (in a parka and cross-country skis instead) and we will sing, “Buffalo Gals, won’t you come out tonight, come out tonight, come out…” Or maybe you are Jimmy and I am Donna Reed, and if you were romantic, you’d promise to lasso the moon, but instead, you are quiet and maybe just following along.

The fresh snow–white and silver glitter flickered in the streetlights, layered on the dogs’ backs like inadequate sweaters–, ahead of us was still untouched, ready for our pack to leave tracks, evidence we’d come out into the world, rather boldly into the cold, because sometimes life becomes a movie scene when you venture out into it.

It ended the way most things end. No matter the splendor, my toes got cold, and I got tired of the fleet wind on my face, before we’d even crossed halfway into the park. No doubt you had more stamina for the weather; nature never seemed to dismay you like it does me. So I posed a plan as I so often do: Let’s take the dogs home, I suggested, and walk a few more blocks to that Italian restaurant on the corner. We’ll walk there, like people do in movies, like people who have a watering hole. God knows, we live in Milwaukee; it’s a shame not to have a corner bar to call our own.

The restaurant was warm and warmly lit. Amber lamps glowed on polished glasses lined up on the bar. My wine was red and your pasta thick. It made the walk through the snow and the park in our early-winter stiff boots all the more idyllic, like there might be movie music soon swelling, and the speed of the action would slow just enough to draw out the moment before the two love interests kiss. Eating eased your irritation with me for pulling you out of the house, like a dog on a leash, to fulfill these ideas I have of things we should do, because it’s what people do, and not always because I long to do them.

Things change as they so often change. Those dogs are long dead, and our black and white mutt hates to get cold or wet so there is little point in going on a leisurely walk in the snow with a dog that prefers dry paws. But I suppose he isn’t too unlike me. I only make myself go out if it seems like something I should do. And sometimes it’s worth it because of moments and memories: that night, that snow.

Now, you can’t be out in the snow, well, the cold, and no sun for you either, which makes going out in March in Milwaukee nearly impossible. Maybe in summer you can walk through our park before dawn, before the sun is up. Photo-sensitivity from the chemo is a danger, but so is everything, it seems.

I shouldn’t have been worried that we’d run out of scenes. Sure, we don’t amble about the neighborhood much any more. But when the doctor told me you had leukemia, I wondered what my next lines should be. And when I told your parents, who had already lost a son, that their son had leukemia, I don’t think I was speaking, but my idea of speaking the words was doing the miserable work for me. So many moments these days, when it is easier to become the watcher and the watched.

All through this past year, I’ve put myself in widow’s dress time and again, but it seems as though you’re going to make it and it’s funny how I know less about this old role of being your wife than the one for which I’d been practicing unwritten lines. We have a man from Europe to thank for his stem cells, for your survival. And maybe someday we will meet him–A handshake? A hug?–just like in a movie. It’s definitely something we ought to do.