Leaning into the mirror, brows furrowed in concentration, Jane fiddled with her new red hat until she was convinced it was adjusted at its most becoming angle.  Taking a couple giant steps back to get a wider view of the hat’s effect, Jane squealed gleefully at her reflection and confidently declared, “Hat, you would have been an exceptional buy at twice your price!”

So tickled by the way she looked, Jane was completely caught up posing this way and that in front of the mirror until she heard the grandfather clock begin to gong the hour.   It was a lot later than she thought and, having been completely carried away by her hat, Jane realized her date would be showing up soon and she was not ready.  Muttering, “I need to get a move on,” Jane scrambled a bit to finish up her hair and make-up.

She fluffed up her hair near the hat’s brim and then reached for her boldest red lipstick, Three Alarm Fire.  Jane took off the cap and screwed up the lipstick.  Holding it next to her hat’s brim for comparison Jane couldn’t believe her continued good fortune, the hat and the lipstick were a matched pair.  After swiping her lips with the lipstick, she ended her primping session as she always did by putting a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye. .

Smugly satisfied, Jane gave herself one final approving glance in the mirror before heading to the screened-in front porch where she would sit and excitedly wait for the arrival of Dr. Lorentzen, her new suitor.

Jane and Dr. Lorentzen had known each other for years and years as he was her medical doctor.  However they had recently started seeing each other after Dr. Lorentzen’s wife died three or so years’ ago.  Jane’s husband had died almost ten years’ ago now but she had never dated anyone until Dr. Lorentzen asked her to see a movie with him after her last scheduled exam.  Jane was elated when he asked as she had always had a school girl like crush on him.

They’d gone to the movie and afterwards to a little dessert café.  Over their desserts and coffee they’d both talked about themselves.   The more Dr. Lorentzen talked about himself the more Jane liked him.  She felt as though he felt the same way about her because when he dropped her off at home at the end of that evening he’d asked her out again.  This time she was to be his partner at bridge in a club he belonged to but hadn’t been very active since his wife died.  Bridge was one of their mutual interests.  Jane belonged to several clubs.  After that bridge session, where they had played together masterfully, both of them came away agreeing they would have to do that again and often.

Tonight, embarking on their third adventure together, the doorbell rang on the dot of the appointed time.  Jane, of course, had seen Dr. Lorentzen pull up and get out of his car and had, excitedly, watched him walk up the front walk and the steps and ring the bell but she had maintained her decorum.  She had forced herself to stay properly planted in her chair until the doorbell sounded.   

“Hi, Doctor!”  Jane called as she popped out of the chair and bounded for the door after he rang the bell.  Dr. Lorentzen opened the door from the outside before Jane reached the handle and stuck his head in smiling at Jane before he walked all the way through the door.

“Jane, Jane, you must stop with the doctor nonsense.  My name is Julius and you must call me that. 

Jane continued grinning as she waved Julius towards the wicker rocking chair that was on the opposite side of the end table from her chair.  Jane was thinking about how nicely the names Jane and Julius fit together.  Jane and Julius sitting in a tree, k- i- s- s- i- n- g.  Jane suppressed a giggle as she thought about that old rhyme. 

After Julius complimented Jane on her hat and commented on how beautiful she always looked (causing Jane to get a little red in the face) they spent a couple minutes talking about the unseasonable weather.  When they were ready to leave, Julius escorted Jane to his car and they drove five miles up the road to the small town where Julius lived to dine at a popular bistro there built out over a lake.

Jane and Julius each ordered a glass of wine and toasted their burgeoning friendship which made Jane feel all mushy inside.  She was besotted with Julius and even though it was early in their relationship, Jane was certain there would be wedding bells in her future.   She was sure she might just pop she was so full of happiness. While waiting for their food to arrive, they took their glasses of wine out to the railing on the deck of the restaurant and sipped in silence as they took in the water gently lapping on the beach, the boats skimming by and the few bathers still on the beach.  Jane thought it the most romantic place to be and boldly slipped her hand into Julius’.  He winked at her and squeezed her hand in response before they both adoringly fixed their gazes squarely into each other’s eyes.

At the beginning Jane had kept her dates with Julius a secret.  She knew that all tongues would wag in her small town that was even smaller than Julius small town and she didn’t relish being the subject of the latest gossip.  However as time went by, and she and Julius began to see other almost nightly, Jane longed to share her happiness with a girlfriend or two.  Jane carefully chose a couple women she felt would be thrilled to hear of her good fortune and who would be willing to listen to her rhapsodies about Julius and who could be counted on to be discreet with their knowledge.   

Soon Jane found herself with barely any time at all that wasn’t devoted to Julius in one way or another.  She regularly shopped for new clothes and accessories as she wanted to be at her very best each time she saw Julius.  She spoke at least once a day and most days more often to her girlfriends sharing all the latest Julius’ news.  And, of course, there was the actual courtship that couldn’t possibly take too much time as far as Jane was concerned.   She and Julius did the most delightful things, Jane thought.  Dinners out, plays, museums, walks in the park, not to mention lots of bridge games.

Well, word about Jane and Julius hit the street and Jane wasn’t sure whether she was at fault for talking about him to her girlfriends or whether they had been spotted together enough for people to talk.  Jane now found that when she went anywhere, to the grocery store or the post office or the hardware store, she would find herself being asked about Julius.  One day she blurted out to the supermarket clerk when asked about Julius that she was in love with him.  Jane was floored when she realized what she had said but there was no taking it back.  It was also undeniably true.  So after announcing her feelings about Julius to an almost total stranger, Jane was hurriedly plotting just the right occasion to tell Julius what she had already carelessly let slip to a complete unknown really.  Jane was well aware that within no time flat everyone in town would know what she had told the clerk.

Finally settled on a place and time to proclaim her love to Julius, Jane invited him to an intimate dinner at her house.  She set the table in the dining room with her very best cloth, dishes and silverware and spent the appointed day in the kitchen finalizing the cooking of the dishes that won out after days of concentrated menu planning.

She’d started with only one course firmly decided dessert. Jane’s trademark was her rhubarb pie.  She was also keenly aware that people either love or hate rhubarb but she was not chancing anything. She’d asked Julius early on in their dating whether he liked rhubarb or not.  She asked him the same thing about lilacs because Jane was so fond of rhubarb and lilacs that she couldn’t imagine herself hitched to someone who didn’t like them.  Just as she knew he would, because everything was so magical about Julius, Julius said he liked both rhubarb and lilacs and added he liked Jane quite a bit too.

Everything was ready.  Jane was dressed in a new top that she paired with pants she’d only worn once before.  She felt so lucky to find the shirt as it was just the perfect shade of gray blue to really make her blue eyes stand out.  After one more quick inspection of the food cooking in the kitchen and the set table in the dining room, Jane headed for the screened- in porch to rock in the wicker rocker and think about Julius for the few minutes she had before he arrived.

“Ma?”

“Hmmmmmm?”

Jane was startled and looked around in confusion. 

“Ma!”

Jerked back from her reverie, Jane saw her youngest son sitting in the rocking chair opposite her on the patio.

“Where did you come from?”  Jane demanded to know.

“Ma, I have been here all afternoon.  You baked a rhubarb pie and we picked some lilacs from your bushes and made a bouquet and then we had some of your rhubarb pie in the kitchen and then came out here.  You’ve been talking crazy though.  You’re talking about being all dressed up and having Dr. Lorentzen over for dinner tonight.  Ma, he is your doctor – he is not your boyfriend.  And, you are in one of the housedresses you always wear!” 

Jane just stared at her exasperated son offering no response.

“I think that you are too lonely, Ma.  You are here all the time in this big empty house and you don’t even go out to play cards anymore.  I’m going to make arrangements for you to go to the senior citizens center a couple afternoons a week.  You need to get out with other people so you don’t have to invent stories about having a boyfriend.  The whole town is talking about your make-believe relationship with Dr. Lorentzen and I pray to God he hasn’t heard it yet!”

Jane continued to silently stare at her son.

Letting out a big sigh, Jane’s youngest son, got up from his chair and went over to his mother’s chair where he clumsily hugged her and declared, “Thanks for the birthday pie, Ma.  It’s hard for me to believe that I turned 60 today and that makes you 85 and you are still as pretty as a picture. I also thank you for not pointing out to me how seldom I come by to see you.  I want to come more often, Ma, but I am so busy.”

Jane smiled at her son and patted his hand.  As he headed out the porch door to get into his car Jane called goodbye to him.  Once she was sure he was gone Jane got up and went into her closet in the bedroom.  She reached up and took down the box on the shelf.  Removing her red hat from the box she turned to the mirror on the bedroom wall.  Leaning into the mirror she arranged the hat until it was at its most becoming angle.  Convinced that it was, she returned to the porch and sat down to wait for Julius to arrive for dinner.

Jane smiled slightly as she resumed her rocking and solemnly declared, “I may have my head in a hat but I do not have my head in the clouds.”

Jane was found still sitting in the chair the next morning when the paper boy opened the screen door to lob in the paper.  When he called to her and she didn’t respond he knew something was wrong and ran to get help.  After he arrived at the scene later, Dr. Lorentzen explained to Jane’s youngest son who had arrived a little earlier, that Jane had died in her sleep and therefore died as peacefully as anyone could.

His work completed, Dr. Lorentzen went out the porch door and Jane’s youngest son accompanied him down the sidewalk to his parked car.  Dr. Lorentzen patted Jane’s son on the back and said, “I’ll always have a special place in my heart for your mother and knowing that she died wearing her signature red hat warms my heart.  She and I shared some mighty good times together.  You are one lucky man to be able to call Jane your mother.  I will be sure to send lilacs to the service.”