Long lost love and finding it again

Radio man. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first met him. It was a tangle of sorts of how he and I came to find each other, as it often is with the new people that make their way into your life through mutual connections and life path turns and twists. It’s funny how one day your world looks one way, and the next, different, when you add a person into your life. This was true with him, in mine.

And so, there I was that summery day in his basement radio room, having never met met before. Warm eyes and grey hair, I thought to myself it was a nice combination, as he sat in front of me smiling and sharing a bit about his life, his radio show and asking about my path with such genuine interest he melted my heart a little. As he spoke, he smiled and brushed his soft wavy hair from his forehead, explaining his work to me and gladly answering the questions I had of him.

As conversations often do, ours moved from work to family and then to love, well, lost love. He had been young and in love and so had she, but things can be complicated and their love was. And so, they went different ways, building lives without each other. Forty years passed, before he would hold her in his arms again. But he did.

As he shared the story with me, my heart overflowed with hope that love that strong and deep truly existed. Too, it hurt for them, that they’d missed a whole lifetime together. He told me though, they had both found new love and lived full and heartfelt lives with their life long partners. It’s just they never truly fell out of love with each other, really.

Late in life, he had found himself alone, his wife now gone from this world, and he then wondering what had happened with his first love. He recounted to me the story of how he set out to find her, driving out into the dusty country town he’d last seen her in, the day they said goodbye.

He said quietly, ‘It was the best place to start to find her’, his eyes brightening and a soft flush appearing on his cheeks as the words left his mouth. I couldn’t help but thinking that those were some of the most beautiful words I had ever heard.

We never know which people we meet will leave their mark on us and how they shed light on our own new directions just by meeting them, until it happens. He did that for me that day, and she did that for him all those years ago.