We’re heading into the downhill stretch of our trip to Colorado and I’m starting to have those “last visits for a while.” That brings out all the feels. We have had incredibly beautiful weather, although they sorely need rain in these parts. While I went out to lunch and a walk with Daughter #2 yesterday, Mr. FixIt took his regular walk around the reservoir nearby. Colorado has the most beautiful scenery. Wispy clouds and bluebird skies….just amazing!
We sat around the table and played cards last night with Ben & Sue and laughed till our sides hurt. Today we’re going to go for a little drive to see some local sites. And tonight we’re going over to teach Daughter #2 how to set her sprinkler system. I know how fast this week is going to go and I want it to slow down. I’ll miss my Colorado peeps so much.
I had a wonderful video chat yesterday with a woman I’ve never met but she’s as much family to me as anyone. I’ve told you stories about my Uncle Sonny who was killed in the plane crash in Germany when he flew for the Air Force. Well, Arlene was his girlfriend and they were planning on being married. She went to the farm to meet Grandma and PopPop and the family. She was the auntie I never got to have.
When my mom was getting into genealogy research, I remembered people talking about Arlene and how wonderful she was. My Grandma loved her like a daughter, although they only met the one time. They kept up by writing letters over the years. I knew she lived in California, and…through the magic of the internet…I found her and reconnected her with my mom. Grandma and PopPop were already gone, but she came to West Virginia with her sister and spent time at the farm and visited Sonny’s grave for the first time.
Arlene went on and married and had a family in California. They owned a pecan farm. She tells of the time she finally was able to stand at Sonny’s grave and surprised herself with the tears that fell when suddenly, a jet plane flew overhead. She felt a sense of closure and was so happy she came for the visit. I was thrilled we could all reconnect.
I’ve thought of Arlene several times over the last couple of weeks. The last I’d heard, she was selling the pecan farm and moving to live near family in Oregon, so I wasn’t at all sure how to reach her. When I woke up yesterday, there was a message in my inbox…from Arlene! She’d seen my pictures of my brother’s birthday party and reached out. So, yesterday afternoon, I sent a video chat request and we had a lovely conversation. She hadn’t heard the farm was sold and I wanted to be sure she knew.
Isn’t it amazing when God presses on your heart a memory of someone, then within a short period of time you connect? I love those moments. I shared stories with her and she told me how she just never felt right in her heart in Oregon. She was trying to do things her way, when she finally realized, if she just turned it over to God, He’d straighten everything out. She did turn it over, and in three days, the movers came and hauled her back to her beloved home in Southern California.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from becoming a widow, it’s this…when God tells you to get in touch with someone, do it. There’s a reason their image is coming to you. Life is entirely too unpredictable to wait after such clear directives come to your heart. I’m so happy we reconnected and I’ll send her a copy of the memory book I’m making about the farm’s history and pray she’s with us for a while longer.
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“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.”
Colossians 2:1-5 ESV