So, here's the story I wanted to tell you about earlier
and the thing you have to understand, Harper,
is this story is about you.
Okay.
I was married for ten years.
You were?
What, like who would have me?
This should probably breathe,
but let's not stand on ceremony.
Demetria, I didn't mean it like that.
It's fine. I'm just kidding.
I didn't think I'd get married either.
But this man... he-- Honey, it was like closer to living.
He stole my heart.
Ooh, yes.
-What's up? Oh. -I was going to feed the plants. There you go.
Okay.
So, what's his name?
Isa, we met on a dating app for black Catholics.
-Oh. That exists? -Not anymore. [laughs]
But praise God, it did for a minute,
'cause that's about seriously how long it lasted.
When we met, I was living in D.C.,
wrapping up my under grad at Howard. Thank you.
And he was working at the National Arboretum.
Oh, he's why you're so into these plants.
[Demetria laughing] Yeah.
Girl, before I met Isa,
I didn't know where vegetables came from.
-Besides the stove. -So, what happened?
He was just not what he seemed or...
In a sense, yes.
We got married, moved down here for his work.
And about seven years in,
he started acting, I don't know, oddly.
Mood swings, secretive, this big explosive fights.
He was cheating.
That's exactly what I thought.
-And I kicked his ass out. -Hmm?
I said, "When you are ready to respect me the way I deserve,
give me a call and then
we will talk about whether I wanna continue this conversation." [scoffs]
Now, I know that whipped him into shape.
[Demetria laughs]
No, it did not. He lost his job.
After that, nobody knew what was going on with that man.
Not me, not his parents, not his brother.
So then what?
-What was the problem? -Well, it was a brain tumor.
Oh, my God!
Started out as colon cancer and then spread to his brain.
That's why he was...
By the time he was diagnosed and they took it out,
the cancer had moved from the spine
to his blood to... everywhere.
And, um, I was halfway through my second year in Georgetown.
I was going back and forth on the weekends
and I quit to take care of him.
-Oh, wow. -[sighs] Mmm.
Anyway, you asked me if he wasn't what he seemed,
and I would say yes.
'Cause to me, he seemed bigger than all the laws of life that
kept us small and pinned in.
He was bigger than time.
Bigger than sickness and bigger than death, but...
He wasn't. He was just a man.
-Just this man. -Oh.
-[Harper] Oh. He looks so kind. -[laughs] He was.
Strong, too.
But this story is about you.
Yeah, you said that. But I...
I don't quite follow.
Harper, I lost a year and a half of law school
caring for that man.
And another two after that lying in bed watching TV,
so sad I could barely breathe.
I did not think I was going to go back to D.C.
and finish a law degree, but I did.
How?
Saw Miss Connolly on the news
talking about your story.
And I know y'all lost that one,
but it inspired me to keep going, go back.
Try again.
I know what it feels like to think you missed your chance, Harper.
You did not miss your chance.
[glass clinking]