True Love Never Dies!
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes, 52 secondsHello, How Are You?
“The photographer wanted me to ask you if you wanted to take photos at each table,” Marie asked me as I was finishing dinner.”Yes, I can do that in about five minutes. Would it be better in front of the organizational banner?” After the interview, I enjoyed sitting with family and key colleagues for a few moments but knew I had no choice but to say yes.
“Richard, it is better table by table with this many people. I know the staff wants a group photo with you.”
I nodded affirmatively, turned to those at my table, and suggested we could do this table first.
As long as we can also get photos with you in front of the banner,” said Gary, a long-term friend and the person who had interviewed and hired me for my initial position.
If you want two photos with me, you are more desperate than I thought,” I laughed.
As we walked to the second table, I asked Marie how many tables we had for the event.
“Thirty-two or thirty-three,” she replied.
I put on my best face and followed her around the banquet hall.
At every table, I received positive feedback.
“Congratulations, great speech.”
So sorry your marriage ended, but you have so much to feel good about tonight.
When we arrived at the last table, I greeted them the same way I had all of the other tables, with grace and humor.
I stood at the back of the table so the photographer would have a blank wall as the background.
Placing my hands on the back of the chair in the middle of the table, I heard a familiar voice.
Could it be Jan? If it is Jan, why is she here? It has been more than four decades since I forced her to leave me.
Deciding it was not her, I asked the photographer,” Are you ready for us to smile?“
Once my eyes adjusted to the flash from the camera, I did what I had done at all of the other tables, thanking them for attending.
The person I had been standing behind was the last person I thanked. As I turned to greet her, I was positive that despite more than four decades, it was Jan.
After almost 48 years, I recently lost my wife, Jan Lilien. Like The Little Prince, Jan and I believed that “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.” This blog is a collection of my random thoughts on love, grief, life, and all things considered.
