Sundown Requiem
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Twenty-five years earlier, on New Year’s Eve, 2015, I married Annie Caton. I considered ours a love affair for the ages. It lasted longer than I could have imagined. In 2040, I saw an advertisement for a new edition of The Generation Diary. The product was a compendium of twenty years of headlines, photographs, and news articles spanning U.S. and world events from 2020 to 2040. The contents appeared to be generic in nature, selected by editors to remind a mixed readership of what happened over the past one-fifth century. The advertisement showed up in magazines, as a pop-up on my computer, and played on television as a sponsor of the Exploring Channel and the History Explained series. I finally felt vindicated for my obsessive pursuit. I was pleased that on my own volition I started collecting clippings in 2015. I secretly amassed a trove of headlines, articles, and correspondence that had particular meaning to our lives. Some featured world affairs, others were more personal in nature. I was scrapbooking everything in preparation to give Annie a gift on our silver anniversary. My plan was to present her with two albums. The first was the completed scrapbook. The second was an empty album ready to be filled with memories from our final years. Then, on July 4, 2039, in Annie’s fifty-ninth year, she died. Her passing was six months before our anniversary. Since we were wed on the last day of 2015, news events of 2040 needed to be added to complete the book. I had planned to choose the final entry along with Annie, but I completed the task alone. I never had a chance to give my wife the scrapbook while she was alive. But I kept my promise and completed the project in 2040. It is my most treasured possession.
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About the Book
It is 2040 as Annie’s marriage to Rob MacKenzie nears their silver anniversary. When Annie becomes ill, Rob decides to comfort her with an unexpected gift. Throughout their marriage, he has secretly assembled a scrapbook filled with headlines, articles, and correspondence with particular meaning to their lives. But when Annie’s time on earth ends sooner than expected, Rob is left to reflect alone on the love, laughter, and events that surrounded their life together. In 2015, Annie and Rob intertwine their lives in marriage while trying to save an environment under duress. As a Colorado attorney, she battles fracking companies while acknowledging the futility of warehousing nuclear waste. When she confronts an inept city council unable to formulate a plan to assist the homeless, she wonders if they even care. Meanwhile, Rob teaches at the University of Colorado. He challenges fledgling scientists to think clearly and write concisely while alerting his students that the environment is unraveling. Creating a peaceful home life, displaying purposeful public lives, and pushing forward to help the less fortunate, will they be able to prevent Earth from descending into a dystopian spiral? Sundown Requiem shares poignant moments, current events, and correspondence that surround a twenty-five-year marriage as lovingly chronicled in a scrapbook.
About the Author
William Allen Burley earned four degrees at Columbia University, including an EdD in education ethics. Retired from teaching in Connecticut schools, he now focuses on population and environmental issues. Bill has one son and lives with his wife in Boulder, Colorado, where he is an avid cyclist. Sundown Requiem is the third book in a trilogy.