Last week I heard that a woman I don't know very well, Madame D, had just lost her husband. When I saw her a few days ago, I stopped to talk to her, and said I was sorry. I asked if it was sudden or unexpected, because I hadn't heard that he was ill.
"Yes," she said. "It was so brutal. Everything was normal that night. And then, at two in the morning, the police knocking on my door. 'Vos papiers, s'il vous plaît!'"
"That's horrible!" I said. "They really demanded to see your papers?"
"Before they would tell me anything. I'm sorry if I've seemed strange. I have been so disoriented, lost in la paperasse and so many details.
"Et on était si bien tous les deux*," she said. Her eyes welled up with tears.
*We were so happy together.
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