EXCERPT CAPONE'S "FORTRESS WEST"

Joe's love for Ida, Gladys' mother.

 . "Just a simple guy.  Simple tastes.  No great expectations from life.

Then . . .

He’d met the love of his life.  Now Joe knew how having great expectations could feel, begging Ida to marry him.  He moved forward with purpose now.  Working at Universal, moving booze, dating Ida, asking her to marry him, repeating the pattern over and over again, while holding his breath waiting for her answer."

..."Every moment together more precious than the one before.

How did one describe heart break?  In Joe’s case, it was a living breathing monster who’s cruel gnarled hands would grab his heart, squeezing down with such force that the excruciating pain would become unbearable.  Rational thought would be pushed aside while his heart shattered, feeling as though it was being ripped out of his chest.  The torn pieces, screaming throughout his body and soul, filled him with a white-hot pain beyond imagination.

As his body fought to manage the pain, it was replaced by a chasm of deep black loneliness so profound in its emptiness that Joe would have welcomed the pain instead.

When Ida died, Joe knew in his heart that everything he was, is, could be, would die with her.

Finally calming down, he started to see the room again.  His head a jumble of thoughts, but the priority was keeping Ida safe.