Conquering Obstacles (Part 52--From the Past)

While I was playing "toys" with my two little darlings one summer afternoon, the telephone rang. "Hello." There it was again--that familiar voice from the past.

It had been seventeen long years since I had last seen Vic, and fourteen years since I had talked with him; but just like old times, I felt his closeness. We spent hours that day just "catching up." He was married now and had an only child who was 12 already, which was hard for me to imagine. It didn't seem like it had been that long...as though it were yesterday. He mentioned his wife only in passing, but told me he was happy, which was the most important of all to me.

I told him stories about my children, those two little loves of my life, and their funny antics, but also shared with him how happy TC and I were together. Life was perfect with one exception: the unanswered question that had been haunting me for so many years.

"Why did you change your mind about coming to see me? You should have called."

As I listened intently, I felt a sudden change in his tone. He spoke quietly, slowly, pausing between each word, as though he were recalling a painful memory.

"I did leave home that night just as I had promised you. It was pouring rain...the roads were covered with water... I was in an automobile accident. I was thrown through the windshield and seriously injured, spending months in the hospital. I don't remember much about that night except thinking how upset you would be. And now I think about how different our lives could have been, should have been. I am so so very sorry."

I asked no more questions but quietly remarked, "It wasn't meant to be."

A week later I received a short note, along with a beautiful photograph of him and his family. He still had that gorgeous smile of his and appeared to be even happier than I had expected. I glanced at it often during the next several days and realized what I needed to do.

I kissed the photograph, placed it in an envelope, and returned it to him with no note, closing the book on this chapter of my life.

To be continued...