I kept my late wife’s memory alive through videotapes. Her voice, her laughter, and her love were meant to be given to our daughter for her 18th birthday. But when I went to retrieve them, they were gone. I asked my new wife, and her answer chilled my blood, broke my heart… and brought tears to my eyes.
My late wife, Nicole, had her old video tapes sitting in a cardboard box on the top shelf of my closet. I’d kept them there for nearly 16 years, waiting for the right moment. Our daughter, Amber, was turning 18 in two weeks, and I could barely contain my excitement. These tapes were all she had left of her mother, of whom she had no memory….
A person holding an old VHS tape | Source: Unsplash
Nicole and I were college sweethearts. We married young and were overjoyed when she got pregnant with Amber. We recorded everything on our old camcorder—Nicole’s growing belly, our nervous excitement, and our whispered promises to our unborn child.
But our happiness was short-lived.
When Amber was only two years old, Nicole was killed by a drunk driver on her way home from visiting her mother. My world came crashing down. I spiraled into a deep depression trying to raise our daughter alone. For years, I couldn’t even consider dating again.
Men carrying a coffin | Source: Pexels
Then I met Lauren five years ago at my sister’s birthday party.
Amber was 13 at the time, and I was finally starting to feel like I could breathe again. Lauren was coming out of a divorce and had two college-aged children. We hit it off right away. She understood loss and rebuilding in a way others didn’t.
Two years later, we got married and started a family. I felt like I had a second chance at happiness.
Maybe I was wrong.
A newlywed couple holding hands | Source: Unsplash
I pulled out one of the cassettes, running my finger along the plastic casing. The label read “Baby’s First Words – 7 Months” in Nicole’s neat handwriting.
“What are you doing up there?” Lauren’s voice made me jump. She was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed.
“I’m just getting ready for Amber’s birthday,” I said, carefully placing the cassette back in the box. “The big 18.”
VHS cassettes on the table | Source: Pexels
Lauren’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “That’s good. What are you planning?”
“Remember those videotapes I told you about? The ones Nicole and I made while she was pregnant? I promised to give them to Amber when she turned 18.”
I saw Lauren’s expression change. The smile disappeared, replaced by something I couldn’t place.
“Is this really necessary, Nathan? It’s been 16 years. Don’t you think it’s time to move on?”
An annoyed woman staring at someone | Source: Midjourney
That night, I couldn’t sleep. Lauren’s words echoed in my head. How could she not understand? These weren’t just tapes… these were Amber’s inheritance and her right.
The next morning, I found Lauren in the kitchen, drinking a cup of tea.
“I’m sorry about yesterday,” she said, without looking up from her cup. “I sometimes feel like I’m living in the shadows.”
I sat down next to her. “Nicole has been gone for 16 years, Lauren. You’re not living in anyone’s shadow.”
A sad couple sitting on the couch | Source: Midjourney
“But she was perfect, wasn’t she? The model with the perfect face. The fashion designer. The mother who could do no wrong… everything I’m not.”
“She wasn’t perfect,” I said quietly. “No one is. But she was Amber’s mother. And those tapes are all Amber has of her.”
Lauren’s eyes filled with tears. “And what am I? What am I to Amber?”
“You’re her stepmother. You’ve been there for her for five years now. That’s important.”
“But it’s not the same, is it?” She looked up at me, her face streaked with tears. “I’ll never be Nicole.”
A frustrated woman | Source: Midjourney
I reached across the table and took her hand. “I don’t want you to be Nicole. I love you for who you are.”
“Really ?”
“Yes.” I hugged her, pressing a gentle kiss to her head, but my chest felt tight. This wasn’t new… Lauren always felt uncomfortable when I talked about Nicole. I thought she’d learn to live with it.
But what I didn’t see coming was how she would break my heart.
A couple hugs | Source: Midjourney
The next morning, Lauren seemed different. She made breakfast, kissed Amber goodbye before she left for her school trip to the mountains, and even kissed me on the cheek as I walked to work.
“About last night,” she said, holding onto my arm at the door. “I’m sorry. I was ridiculous.”
“It’s okay,” I said, relieved that the tension had dissipated. “We all have our moments.”
She smiled. “Can I see the tapes when you get back? I’d like to understand better.”
I hesitated, then nodded. After all, we were a family now, and there shouldn’t be any secrets between us.
A woman smiling | Source: Midjourney
That evening, I showed him the box. I even played one of the tapes on our old VCR, the one I’d kept especially for watching them.
Nicole appeared on screen, her belly rounded with pregnancy, her smile radiant. “Hello, my baby,” she said, addressing our future baby. “This is your mommy. I can’t wait to meet you.”
I glanced at Lauren, expecting to see embarrassment or jealousy. Instead, she was calm.
“She was beautiful,” she said bluntly.
“Yes, she was,” I agreed, turning back to the screen.
“I’m going to bed,” Lauren announced suddenly. “Don’t stay up too late.”
Grayscale photo of a pregnant woman | Source: Unsplash
She left without another word, leaving me alone with Nicole’s image flashing on the screen.
***
The next morning, I decided to put the tapes in a nicer box. The old cardboard box was falling apart, and I wanted everything to be perfect for Amber.
But when I went to get the box of cassettes from the closet, it wasn’t there.
I looked everywhere—under the bed, in other closets, and even in the attic. But she was… GONE.
Eventually, I found Lauren in the living room, flipping through a magazine.
A woman holding a magazine | Source: Midjourney
“Have you seen the box of video cassettes?”
She didn’t look up. “I threw them away!”
“What did you do?”
“I threw them away. It’s time to move on, Nathan. Those tapes were holding you back… holding us all back.”
“They weren’t yours to throw away! They were Amber’s! They were her mother’s!”
A scared man | Source: Midjourney
Lauren finally looked up, her expression hard. “I’m her mother now. Or at least, I try to be. But that’s impossible with Nicole’s ghost still hanging over us.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Where did you throw them? Maybe we can still…”
“The garbage truck came by this morning. They’re gone.”
A dust cart on the street | Source: Pexels
My stomach plummeted. I rushed out and opened the lid of the dumpster. But it was empty. The trash cans on the street were empty too.
I stood there, breathing heavily, my hands clenched.
I don’t remember very well what happened next. I know I screamed. I know Lauren started crying, not the silent tears from earlier, but loud, desperate sobs. I left the house, got in my car, and drove aimlessly for hours.
A man driving his car | Source: Unsplash
When I returned, the house was quiet. Lauren had left a note saying she was staying with her sister for a few days. “To give you space,” she wrote.
I sat on the couch, head in my hands. How was I going to tell Amber? How was I going to explain that the only thing she had of her mother was gone forever?
The sound of the front door opening made me look up. Amber was standing there, her backpack slung over her shoulder, still wearing the hoodie from her two-day school trip. She looked exhausted but managed a small smile when she saw me.
“Dad? What’s wrong?” His voice was laced with concern, so much like Nicole’s that it made my chest ache.
A worried girl | Source: Midjourney
I swallowed hard. “There’s something I was planning to get you for your birthday. Something special.”
Amber frowned and put down her backpack. “Yes?”
I took a shaky breath. “Your mother and I made videotapes when she was pregnant with you. We recorded everything—us talking to you, laughing… dreaming of the day you’d be born. We promised to show them to you when you turned 18.”
An emotional man | Source: Midjourney
Amber’s eyes widened, her breath hitched. “Do you have any of Mom’s tapes?”
“I had some. Lauren threw them away.”
“WHAT?? Why would she do that?”
“She said it was time to move on.”
“Well, I haven’t even had a chance to hold on to anything yet. How can I move on from someone I never knew?”
His words pierced my heart. “I’m so sorry, Amber. I disappointed you.”
“No, Dad. You didn’t disappoint me. Lauren did.”
A Girl with a Broken Heart | Source: Midjourney
That night, Amber knocked on my bedroom door. Her eyes were red from crying, but they held determination.
“Dad, where does our trash go?”
I looked at him, confused. “To the city dump. Why?”
“So that’s where we’re going.”
We drove across town to the local dump, bribing the guard with a $50 bill to let us in. Under flickering spotlights, surrounded by mountains of garbage, we rummaged through endless bags, the stench unbearable. Suddenly, Amber let out a gasp.
“Dad! I found one!”
Night photo of a rail yard | Source: Midjourney
My heart leaped. She held up a cassette, its label smudged but still legible: “Baby’s First Kick.”
We kept looking and found three more tapes. It wasn’t the complete collection, but it was something.
As we walked back to the house, Amber clutched the tapes to her chest. “Thank you, Dad. For not giving up.”
“I would never give up on you… or your mother’s memory.”
A VHS tape with a smudged label in a farmyard | Source: Midjourney
We spent the next few days looking through the recovered tapes. They were a little damaged, but most of the content was still visible. Amber stared at Nicole’s face in wonder, soaking up every detail of the mother she never knew.
“She had my laugh,” Amber says at one point, her voice filled with admiration.
“Yes, it’s true,” I agreed, my heart both breaking and healing.
An emotional girl looking at someone | Source: Midjourney
When Lauren returned from her sister’s house, the atmosphere in the house was tense. She tried to apologize, but her words rang hollow.
“I didn’t think,” she said. “I was just so jealous. I felt like I could never live up to him.”
“You’re right,” Amber said coldly. “You can’t. Because she would never do something so cruel.”
Lauren flinched. “Amber, please. I’m sorry.”
“Being sorry doesn’t make what you did right. Those tapes were all I had of her.”
A stunned woman | Source: Midjourney
Lauren turned to me, her eyes pleading. “Nathan, please. Tell him I’m sorry.”
I looked at her, really looked at her, and saw someone I didn’t recognize. “I think you should go back to your sister’s for a while. We all need some space.”
***
Amber’s birthday arrived, and we celebrated with a small party. Just the two of us, plus my parents and Amber’s best friend. Lauren was still at her sister’s house.
After the cake and gifts, I handed Amber a small, beautifully wrapped box.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Open it,” I told him softly.
A man holding a gift package | Source: Pexels
Inside were the tapes we had recovered, along with a USB drive.
“I had them scanned,” I explained. “That way, you’ll always have them, no matter what.”
Amber’s eyes filled with tears. “Thank you, Dad. This means the world to me.”
We watched the tapes together, laughing and crying as Nicole’s voice filled the room. It was bittersweet, but it was healing.
Later that night, as Amber was heading to bed, she stopped at the door. “Dad, what’s going to happen with Lauren?”
I sighed. “I don’t know, honey. What she did… it’s hard to forgive.”
A man in distress | Source: Midjourney
Amber nodded. “You know, Mom would want you to be happy. But she would also want you to be with someone who respects her memory, not someone who tries to erase it.”
“When did you become so wise?” I asked, smiling through my tears.
“I got it from my mother,” she replied, and closed the door.
***
A week later, I met Lauren at a cafe. She looked tired, her eyes red.
A nervous woman sitting in a cafe | Source: Midjourney
“I’ve been thinking,” I said, after we’d both had our drinks. “About us. About what happened.”
“I’m so sorry, Nathan. I don’t know what came over me. I was so jealous, and I felt so insecure, and…”
“Lauren,” I interrupted. “I understand jealousy and insecurity. But what I don’t understand is cruelty.”
She looked down. “That was unforgivable.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
She raised her head, her eyes wide. “What are you saying?”
A shaken woman | Source: Midjourney
“I’m saying I think it needs to end. Not just because of what you did, but because of what it revealed about you. About us.”
“Nathan, please,” she begged. “We can work on this. I’ll go to therapy. I’ll make it up to Amber.”
“Some things can’t be fixed. Some things, once broken, can’t be fixed.”
She started to cry. “I love you.”
“I know, but sometimes love isn’t enough.”
Six months later, the divorce was finalized. Lauren moved back to her hometown, and we rarely spoke except for practical matters.
A couple signing their divorce papers | Source: Pexels
Amber thrived in her first year of college, studying film, inspired by her mother’s cassette tapes.
As for me, I was healing. Slowly, but surely.
One evening, Amber called me from college. “Dad, I’ve been working on a project. I want you to see it.”
She sent me a link to a video. It was a montage of clips from Nicole’s tapes, interspersed with new footage Amber had shot of herself in the same locations, doing the same things.
“It’s called ‘Echoes,’” she explained. “It’s about how we carry the people we love with us, even when they’re gone.”
A cheerful man holding his phone | Source: Midjourney
As I watched Nicole’s face fade before Amber’s, their smiles mirroring each other across time, a quiet warmth filled my chest.
The tapes were just objects. But the love they represented was the real treasure… and it was something no one could ever throw away.
Close-up of a person holding a VHS tape | Source: Pexels
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This work is inspired by real events and people, but has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the story. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or to actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims regarding the accuracy of events or character portrayals and are not responsible for any misinterpretations. This story is provided “as is,” and the opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
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