Few people will understand, but I received a gift yesterday that was priceless, a phone call from my past, someone I had not heard from for over 50 years. So many memories came flooding back, memories that I didn't even know were there, or at least had not been on the surface of my mind for many years.
Many years ago I had a similar experience ..... first a little history. My first wife and I divorced in the late 50's. I went to Nevada, she went her way, and I had very little, to no, contact with my two children till I got a phone call from their Grandmother, in the 80's, "Your children would like to know what you look like." Or something to that effect, "in case they pass you on the street."
At that time I had no idea where they were, and had almost given up ever seeing them again. I was remarried and had two children, was working in the printing business, and had a new life. I always wondered, but finding loss relatives was not easy back then, no computers.
Anyway, we had a reunion, emotional, more for me than them, I had my kids again, they had their lives, and I really was not a part of theirs, they now knew their father, we loved each other, said goodbye, and we left for Ohio.
It was a difficult "head" thing for me, I just wanted to take them home with us, "Ok, come on guys, let's go home," sort of thing. I had found my kids, they were part of my life again, but they lived 500 miles away. I had a hard time rationalizing that in my head.
Anyway, we stay in touch, visit once in a while, and everyone is leading their own life. Everyone is healthy and happy.
Yesterday, that call, brought back memories that were even older than that, way back to the early 50's, the old USN, Yeoman School, and dating, the woman who was the mother of those two early children.
I never imagined that I would ever have contact again with anyone from that era.
A priceless gift.
