After All This Time!

I had another quiet evening last night.

These evenings are really going to spoil me. I bonded with my cocker spaniel. We cuddled and watched TV.

Somewhere in the midst of it all, my telephone rang. I nearly fell out of my chair when I found out that on the other side of the telephone was this wonderful elderly lady that I literally have not talked to in over 10 years. She lives here in Arlington and goes to the church that Lovey and I were married in. In fact, she attended our wedding all those years ago!

She carries her age quite well.....and in fact, no one has ever been sure of just how old she really is...well, that is until last night. She finally announced to me that she is 88 years old!

She wanted me to know that she had gotten my Christmas Card, but she had been feeling quite ill and had fallen.....so she was just now beginning to feel like herself. She wanted me to know that she was shocked about the news of my divorce.....and wanted to know if I were okay....and that she thought of me often!

We continued to catch up.

Turns out that she has outlived her two daughters.... But she still remains upbeat. Her only son-in-law keeps an eye out on her and takes her to dinner once a week. She's got all kinds of grandchildren, nieces, nephews and what have you. Her sister is still alive at the age of 90!

She then went down the list of all the people who have died at the old church.

It saddened me to hear.

I guess what has really made me feel bad is that we left that church because of Lovey's ministerial quest. She angered a lot of people...and we lost touch of so many dear friends.

This dear sweet lady now wants me to come back to the church for a visit.....and be her special guest. I also told her that I'd love to take her to dinner or to lunch on Saturday. She seemed to like this!

We talked for over an hour.....and at the end of the conversation she said two magic words that melted my heart:

"Love ya."

Even after all this time!