Ex

I got an email from my ex the other day. His father passed away almost two years ago; I knew that. He and I had had to get papers notarized about 16 months ago and we took a few minutes to chat then. We had seen each other at a reunion in July and then again in August for a memorial service. He had been the contact person for the group and so I was somewhat used to receiving emails from him. But this missive was not about our college chamber singing group. In this message he said his mother had moved to a retirement facility and he was cleaning out their family home for sale. Oh! His parents had lived in that house for 60 years. Imagine the stuff! He said he found some pictures of me. Did I want them? Sure, I said. And the reason I said it was because he said there were some shots of my mother. Yes, I would love to have them. I have a dearth of photos from that period of my life. And extremely few photos of my mother. In fact, I have about one photo from my early college years and only a couple from the years at the university where I got my degrees (and met him). What then ensued was a polite and cautious exchange of emails. The last time I had seen him was two weeks before I found out that Bill was being put on hospice. I let him know that since I had last heard from him, both Bill and my father had passed. He wrote back and expressed sadness that my father was gone, but mentioned nothing of Bill. Why should he? He thinks Bill took me away from him. He expressed hope that my dad's passing had been peaceful as had his dad's. I wrote back that it was not quite so. I added that there had been a significant battle with pneumonia and that when Bill was on hospice the burden of his arrangements had fallen on Laura. He responded again politely that he was sorry to hear Dad's last weeks had been difficult and this time said something to the effect that he was sure Bill's final days were also tough. And it was at this point that I decided 'enough of the niceties.' No more emails. I'll thank him when I receive the photos. Why prolong this dialog? I was courteous. I have accepted his offer of the photos and have thanked him. No more. There is no reason to revisit that chapter of my life again. There's nothing more to say beyond being gracious about his willingness to give me some more pictures. He opened that door; there's no need to walk through it.