happy ending

I met Natalie and Joe this summer in water aerobics. They're in love... crazy, sweet sixteen kind of love... smile at each other silly kind of love... blind to everyone else kind of love... and I think they are about 76, 77 years old... you really feel good just being around them.

Tonight, at our end-of-season BBQ I asked Joe how they met... and he said in high school. They dated for four years in high school... but he went one way for college and she went the other and then the Korean war broke out and he was sent to Korea and when he came back things had happened and Natalie had married Hank, another guy they'd gone to high school with.

Then he and his wife attended their fiftieth high school reunion and he saw Natalie and she saw him. Within four years later both of their spouses were deceased and within months they were together. Natalie has told me she has never been happier in her life. I should tell her it is obvious...

Natalie then tells me this happens. A friend of hers had dated a guy in high school who became a Jesuit priest. She had married and divorced four times, Nat says, trying to find the right guy. A friend of his who knew her encouraged him to call her and he did. When they met they flew into each other's arms... each other was what they had been missing.

The Britcom, Time Goes By was on last night. I think I've seen every episode at least twice. When Lionel bumps into Jean, three decades have gone by. They have misfires and misunderstandings but attraction wins out in the end and in their bumbling, stiff way they end up together.

Lately I have found myself trying to just live today. Trying hard to not think, not dream and for God's sake not speculate on what I am or am not hearing... but today it has been particularly difficult.