A meant-to-be message

“I giggled as I sent a text to my husband, who was on his way to the airport for a business trip, that said: I forgive you. My love is unconditional. Before he’d left, he had confessed to eating the last piece of my cheesecake. My message would surely make him smile. But when my phone dinged, the response made my pulse skip. This means the world. I love you too! —Dad.

“I hadn’t spoken to my father in months after we’d had a huge argument, yet seeing his response, a part of my icy stubbornness softened. So I gave him a call, we met for lunch and we ended up talking and laughing for hours.

“Less than a week later, Dad died suddenly from a heart attack. As I shed tears of loss, I also had a sense of peace and thankfulness. Somehow, fate had stepped in just in time…and sent that healing message to the right number after all.”