He smiled over his Sunday morning oatmeal, plain and steaming, his grapefruit cut into halves. Smiled with his eyes. Gotta remember, always with the eyes.
“That’s your problem,” pointing at his wife’s sausage and pancakes, drenched with syrup.
“And that’s yours!” She pointed back, at his grapefruit, her well-rounded face slinging condemnation.
“It wouldn’t hurt you to get up off your ass once in a while, either, and exercise.” He suddenly realized he was no longer smiling. Remember, always with the eyes.
He had read that people who smile with their eyes live longer. Seriously. Researchers at Wayne State University in Michigan studied photographs of baseball players from the 1950’s. Those who were smiling with their eyes in the photos lived an average of 7 years longer than those who were not smiling at all.
A week later, he eyed her toast, golden brown and delicious. Of its own accord, his hand reached out and snarfed a slice.
“Be careful,” she said. “That has butter on it!”
He knew she was mocking him, but he couldn’t help but chuckle. He stopped, staring at it, debating whether to put it down or to put it in his mouth.
“You’re too much!” She interrupted his thoughts.
He focused on her headlight-blue eyes, which were beaming astonishment at him. He grinned at her and shoved the dripping shingle into his mouth, chewed and swallowed.
Gack! He choked. “I think I’m going to be sick!”
The following month, she slept poorly. He made her breakfast, between shudders of disgust, just the way she liked it. He brought her a tray in bed. Then he leaned over and kissed her tenderly on the lips.
“What’s that for?” Surprise.
“What’s what for?” he asked.
She motioned at the tray. “Breakfast,” she said. “And you haven’t kissed me like that in… forever.”
“What? I can’t kiss my own wife?!”
A pause.
He stared at the tray of what might be loosely termed food, grinned sardonicism. “I still don’t know how you can eat that.”
“See!?” As if to prove her point. “That’s what I’m talking about. You can kiss my fat ass!”
His face fell. “I just want you stick around. Because I’ll miss you when you die.”
After a year, they were carving smiles on each others’ whole-wheat bagels and feeding each other bites of egg-white omelet with onion and green pepper.
Sundays passed. The weekend of his big promotion at work. The months after the big layoff. The war. The great blizzard and other winters. Lazy weekends reclining under the summer sunrise. The colors of the autumns, the freshnesses of springtime.
She sat shiva with their daughter and sons, friends and family, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Onto a bagel slice, she carved two eyes and a grin.
“I already miss his smile,” her daughter’s voice said sadly.
Crows’ feet around her eyes, the old woman hugged and kissed her little girl. “I know. But it’s still here,”—resting her palm on the younger woman’s heart—”and will never die.”

As I continued browsing different shopping websites, I discovered this simple and friendly store – the overall experience is smooth, intuitive, and very comfortable for casual browsing.
While casually exploring curated marketplace examples and online vendor showcase systems for inspiration and UI review, I encountered Kettle Crest trade catalog entry within a structured section – The browsing experience felt user friendly, and I was able to locate everything without difficulty while pages loaded quickly and maintained consistent performance.
While exploring e-commerce inspired gallery websites and UI layouts, I discovered a structured interface containing Linen Meadow product showcase portal integrated into a clean design that highlights clarity – The experience feels elegant, calm, and easy to navigate, making extended browsing sessions comfortable and efficient
Online browsing users often highlight the importance of intuitive design and organized content presentation which becomes apparent when they enter platforms such as Maple Crest shopping hub – offering a pleasant interface that simplifies product discovery and enhances overall user satisfaction.
Exploring digital vendor sites becomes easier when an interesting platform overall allows browsing different sections today here comfortably Jewel Brook vendor center everything felt organized and responsive
As I explored different digital storefronts, I found this smooth vendor system – product display is nice, everything loads quickly, and the interface looks clean and well arranged.
riverharbormarketparlor.shop – Well organized content simple layout easy to explore everything quickly
During a general review of online showcase hubs and curated ecommerce directories, I found a site where Harbor online showcase hub – appeared stable enough to keep in mind for future browsing needs. The layout supported easy exploration and reduced unnecessary complexity while switching between pages.
While comparing ecommerce vendor platforms I focused on usability flow visual hierarchy and navigation efficiency across pages MarbleBrook Trading Product Loft the experience was smooth and organized and the website runs smoothly and browsing items feels natural and well structured making product discovery simple
While reviewing various retail websites, I noticed this minimal shopping site – everything is arranged neatly, allowing users to browse and navigate products smoothly and without confusion.
While researching different online stores for curated items I reviewed usability and shipping consistency and found Juniper Harbor Market Gallery and items arrived quickly while site navigation is smooth and very intuitive too which created a smooth shopping flow that felt organized easy and very convenient for exploring various products