ERNIE AND ERNESTINA: Searching

Book Two, Chapter 321: Life as Change

In her book The Amateur, An Independent Life of Letters, Wendy Lesser writes of meeting the aging ballerina Tamara Toumanova, who began the study of ballet in Paris at age five. Six years later she was discovered by Balanchine. The ballerina tells Wendy: “In life, you never realize how everything changes. It changes suddenly.”

One day I didn’t know Ernie. The next day I did. A few days later, we drove to his stucco cottage. A few weeks later, we married. A few months later, Joshua was born. For a few years, Ernie wrote stories and sold a few of them. A little while ago, he died. Shortly after that, I awoke.

Yes, life changes suddenly. And the biggest change is that each life will end.

This is life. We know this, and we forget it.