As luck would have it

Dear Readers: In light of St. Patrick's Day, I want to share this story from “Same Boat,” who wrote a response recently to share the story of how he reconnected with his fiancée from 28 years ago. With all the twists and turns of life, his story is about as lucky as they get. May your holidays be equally serendipitous.

Dear Annie: Thank you for publishing my response to “Nostalgic and Regretful.” I wanted to share with you something I recently wrote regarding my fiancée and my love story — our “romance novel,” if you will.

We met in March 1994 at a local pizzeria. I was a cook there, and she had just been hired as a hostess. At the risk of sounding cliché, I had never seen someone so beautiful, and to this day, only my children have ever equalled that sight.

The attraction was instant, but it went beyond that. Never before had somebody had my back the way she did.

At the (quite appropriate) protestations of her family, who saw me as an 18-year-old bum, she always stood by me.

But we were kids, and I was an idiot, fearful and insecure. I broke up with her, and in doing so, devastated myself.

We would not set eyes upon each other for nearly 30 years.

We became Facebook friends in 2009 and would sometimes wish each other happy birthday. I didn't think much of it, as I dubbed Facebook “where old friendships go to die.”

Then she popped up on my feed.

There was something curious about it: Her name was her maiden name. My divorce from my second marriage had finalized a few months prior, and suddenly, there were no chains holding me anywhere.

My curiosity wouldn't let me go. After a little research, I discovered her divorce finalized one day before mine.

That night, I reached out and asked if she wanted to go out and get some burgers.

While we didn't get those burgers that night, we did start talking again. Soon after, I started preaching again. It's funny, because when I was in the hospital with COVID-19, I prayed that if God got me out of there, I would go back to working in the church.

So, there I was, back in ministry after more than seven years away, and right after the first service, I got a text from her: “You know, I'm only 20 minutes from you.”

My son and I arrived right to the place where she was camping. “I better be getting a hug,” she said. To paraphrase Eminem, I had “travelled back to the arms of my rightful owner.”

We were set in stone that day and have been ever since. I want to be the best version of myself for her, because she deserves nothing less. I can never say about anyone else what I can say about her: that she truly makes me a better man.