A friend spoke at church today: at the last minute, he’d decided to fly to a family get-together.
When he had been a child, his parents had had to take business trips and a friend of theirs (let’s call her Betty) would take care of the kids. Betty became practically a member of the family.
He, now a father of four young children himself, decided at the last minute to fly to an extended family get-together to see a relative giving his farewell talk at church before leaving on a two-year Mormon mission.
And it turns out that his aunt and uncle had decided to invite Betty to drive the hundreds of miles with them to come be a part of the family again.
Betty and and my friend, who had no idea she would be there, saw each other coming in at separate doors at the same time: she threw her arms high and called out his name and the former child and his former almost-a-second-mom ran to each other. She hugged me like Betty always did, he said.
They sat next to each other during the meeting. She asked him, Do you have any children? and he happily pulled out his phone and showed off pictures. Wonderful! She beamed.
A few minutes later, she leaned over to him again with the biggest smile, and asked, Are you married? Do you have any children?
He pulled out his phone and showed her, wondering…
A few minutes later, again. And it made her happy all over again to exclaim over those beautiful children and his lovely wife.
Relating the story later, he admitted he didn’t get much out of the meeting, but…! And afterward, she remembered all these tales of him as a child and delighted in regaling him with them.
It was just the new memories that weren’t sinking in. But he had come, and she–
–someone struggling now with old age and a failing memory and all the worry that comes with those circumstances–
–had found connection and love from the past coming back to confirm her and she knew that she mattered forever.
And to think he almost hadn’t gone. He was so glad he did.