The Illusion of Tomorrow

The text message arrived unexpectedly, from someone I hadn’t spoken to in five years.

- BY INVITATION Preeti Shenoy

Just a brief invitation to a church ceremony the following day. My first instinct was to dismiss it as a mistake. But this wasn’t someone prone to careless errors.

I reached out for clarification, and the devastating truth emerged. A mutual friend’s husband had passed away that morning.

The news stunned me. Though it had been decades since I'd seen her, memories rushed back with surprising clarity. We had once lived in the same apartment complex, our lives interwoven in the chaotic rhythm of early motherhood. During one of the most challenging chapters of my life, when I was pregnant with my daughter and on strict bed rest, it was she who stepped in without hesitation. Every day, she picked up my three-year-old son, took him home, and cared for him alongside her daughter until my husband could take over in the evening.