Love at First and Second Sight!

During the summer of 1974 my older sister was moving from Ruston Louisiana to upstate New York. A young, tall, strapping man was the driver of the Van Lines that moved her household furniture and they became immediate friends. Upon their arrival in New York my sisters husband asked the driver if he wanted to spend the night as it was late, and then he could complete his unloading in the morning.

Three days later I received a call from my sister - and the first thing she said was "I gave your phone number to a truck driver"! I was so shocked! My sister is somewhat of a 'prude' and the thought that she had done such a thing was beyond my comprehension!

A week or so passed, and I was at work at a hospital in Shreveport Louisiana when 'the driver' called. His first name was Kent - which I thought was just wonderful sounding - and he was there in Shreveport asking if he could come by the hospital and buy me a cup of coffee. Gulp! Ok, why not right? One cup of coffee and then he'd be gone....

Twenty minutes later he walked into the doorway of my office - and I fell immediately in love. Yep, that's what I said.... immediately. The great part of the story is that he did too! We thought the whole world would feel the same as we did and be happy for us! Geez was I wrong. My parents hated him, his parents hated me. We were forced to sneak to see each other while he was working as a truck driver over the summer months, still moving furniture. The only way he felt we could finally be married was for him to enlist in the Navy, which he did. I literally ran away from home and flew to California (for his boot camp graduation) and we then eloped to Great Lakes Illinois where the base Chaplain married us in the little Church on the Lake - while the choir practiced! Now it's 1975.

Through the stress and strain of youth, losing a baby, having 2 others, and no emotional support from our parents, we fell apart, and now it's 1979.

Fast forward 19 years. (1998) We have had no contact of any kind. Kent traveled with his work all over the world - and I chose to disappear with the girls (2) - afraid of God knows what - maybe that'd he'd take them - heck I don't know. Our youngest daughter is married expecting a baby. She comes to me and asks me to help her find her father. Oh my - I thought, and thought some more.... finally with the help of the Internet I located his father - and he in turn arranged for them to talk by phone. Nineteen years later my daughter and her father met for the first time - and they were like 'mutt and jeff' from then on.

So, where do I fit in?? In 2004 our oldest daughter decided she needed to meet with Kent also. She had been four when we divorced, our youngest being just one. They arranged the meeting by themselves - trying not to upset me too much. Their plans did upset me though, so I searched and searched to find his e-mail address on the Internet. I located him and sent a short e-mail - only because I did not want him hurting our oldest daughter in any way. She had some medical issues - and I was afraid stress would be too much for her at the time.

It took a few tries before he responded - then we began e-mailing, eventually calling. In the summer, once again (!) we decided I would fly to his work site in Boston. The worse that could happen would be we didn't like each other at all - but would share a nice week in Chelsea Square. We are up to 2005.

My flight was late - I was nervous.

As I walked toward baggage in the Logan Airport my heart seemed to slow to a stop, as did my breathing! My flight was so very late! What if he had left?

Then, there he was, sitting there waiting. I walked up and sat down next to him - kissed him on the cheek - and heard him say "You are late".

How romantic is that!!!

Again, in that moment, we were in love all over again. Second sight. Not really, it had never died in all those years in between. Even though we are so different personality wise we know this is exactly where we should be, as well as where we should have been all those years. We deal with the regret each day, but cherish our being together now. Oh, we were married again - sort of eloped - in Little Rock Arkansas. (Another long story as to how we ended up there!)

Once when asked by a relative what happened years before Kent responded that it was just circumstances beyond our control that pulled us apart. Thank God that circumstances brought us back together again!