(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It's Friday, and time again for StoryCorps. Today, a friendship that started on a park bench. After her husband died, Leta Spatz had a bench in a local park dedicated to him. Twelve years later, she noticed someone had left a bouquet of yellow daisies there. That person was Gail McGill.
GAIL MCGILL: When you saw a bouquet of flowers, what did you think?
LETA SPATZ: To me, it was like, maybe there's a young couple here experiencing the joy that my husband and I had. And then I found out later exactly where they came from.
G MCGILL: Yeah. The day of the event was a beautiful day. My husband, Walter, was a little grumpy that morning, and then he said, I'm going on a walk. The next thing I knew, there were police officers at my front door asking me questions. Did I know Walter? Was he my husband? The police officer said he died, and he's on the bench right around the corner. In my mind, I was like, this is not happening.
The day after, we, as a family, placed Walter's favorite flowers - the yellow daisy - on that bench. And my neighbors told me, there's a woman that lives in the neighborhood. She is the one that owns that bench. You really need to talk to her. And so we agreed to meet on the bench. It was early in the morning, and I was a little nervous. But we met, and we shared our stories, and it brought me comfort.
SPATZ: We were both married for 40-plus years, and so we were dealing with a whole lot.
G MCGILL: At first, it's like, what do I do now? I don't know who I am anymore.
SPATZ: Right. You wake up in the morning, and you put the coffee on. And your husband's going to wake up, and we're going to go on with our lives. All of a sudden, everything is gone.
G MCGILL: You know, I still have Walt's voice on...
SPATZ: Yes.
G MCGILL: ...The voicemail. And when I'm having a bad day, I will just pull it up, and there he is talking to me.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WALTER MCGILL: Hey, Gail. This is Walt. I thought I'd call and let you know I was thinking about you.
SPATZ: I actually wrote Frank letters and journals for a long time after he was gone. And it kind of lifts you up once you get past the sadness.
(Reading) Dear Frankie, at the end of my day, I come home to an empty house. It's so quiet. God, how I miss you.
You know, Frank was my soulmate, and he always will be. But to be able to just talk to somebody on, how do I handle this? Where do I start?
G MCGILL: Yeah. Having a friend like you really helped a lot.
SPATZ: It's kind of sad that our husbands had to pass for us to meet, but that's just where our path led. And it's a friendship I have never had before. I can come to you about anything. And for me, that's saying a lot.
G MCGILL: We're kindred spirits, and we both know that life is precious.
(SOUNDBITE OF BLUE DOT SESSIONS' "SAGE THE HUNTER")
MARTIN: That was Gail McGill and Leta Spatz in Pensacola, Florida. Their StoryCorps interview is archived at the Library of Congress. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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