It was not that he found it odd. It was not that at all, but it made him think just a little.

After the events of the day, something so trivial as this should not really matter, yet for him, in that moment, it caused him to miss a breath.

The list was fairly routine. It was on a pad that had hung on the fridge door for years, being filled up gradually as the week wore on, just for the top sheet to be ripped off and taken for the shop on a Friday night.

Why they shopped on a Friday night nowadays was a mystery, for they had all the time in the world, if the truth be known.

But in the past, when everyone was at school or work and Friday was the end of the working week, they had money from their pay packets and the weekend was nigh, they found it a good night to shop.

But that was not the case anymore, for everyone was older.

Indeed, half the time, they had joked to each other, they weren’t that sure of even what day it was!

It was in many ways a nice feeling, but in others, it was a bit sad, for it was a demonstration that they were getting older. The years they had left would be much fewer than those already gone.

It was item five on the list that made him struggle in that moment. Yet, the first four were as uninteresting as any other shopping list.

• Eggs
• Milk
• Corned beef
• Mild Cheese

She had always put that little dot to the side as she wrote the items, “My bullet points,” she called them.

There was nothing spectacular about these simple items, though they would be missed if they weren’t in the larder or fridge, that’s for sure.

The fifth item was a memory from the past. It brought back a sultry evening to him that he simply hadn’t thought about for many a year. That was what caused his intake of breath as he read it.

Indeed, he would not have read the list at all that Wednesday evening, but for the tragedy that had befallen them earlier, that was the strange twist of fate in the whole experience.

• Coriander

That was what it said. For many this would be a run-of-the mill herb that would form part of every week’s shopping list. But not for this household.

It was unusual.

As he looked at the list, he realised that he did not need it anymore really, for things had changed. In but a few moments earlier in the day, the list had become irrelevant and he would not be expected to follow its demands any longer.

Life was changed today and nothing would ever be the same again.

Of course over the years, their lives had changed a lot. From their earliest days together, to the present day, most of their world had changed to a certain extent. It was a life of continual change. Indeed change was happening every moment of every day.

He would have to remember that in the days to come. Indeed, that’s what one of the medical people had said to him at the time.

“Change, Mr Lewis, happens all the time. And we get used to it.”

Comforting information, that. Thank you for putting me in the picture.

Then the kids had come along, anxious and upset. Determined to support him in this hour of need, yet truthfully, not having a clue about how to approach this tragedy.

They did their best.

And now, they were gone, to their respective homes. With him pondering about that experience, all those years ago, where coriander played its part so effectively.

She had asked the man what the flavour was. That pungent aromatic flavour that was so typical of the style of the country they were visiting for the very first time.

The man had been so generous with her as he answered her questions in detail. So courteous and afterwards, when he came to her in the courtyard when they thought they couldn’t be seen, so loving and warm.

From the window he had seen them and he was a little disappointed, but she had been that wild spirit. Their embrace was a metaphor for the life she led which was so adventurous.

Over the years, there had been other mild examples of the way she was and now, after this afternoon, would be no more.

He picked up the list and wondered why, after all this time, she had decided to buy coriander. What was in her mind?

He would never know the answer to that now. But he would buy some.

Tomorrow he would buy some and seek out a simple recipe from the books in the cupboard.

And use it, in her memory.