New Beginnings

 

And who would have thought?  A few months before my 30th birthday, Roger and I met.  It was actually a blind date, orchestrated by his cousin, Dan and my former sister in law, Margie.  I was living in San Francisco at the time, working as a service rep for an Insurance Company.  Rog was living in Portland.  Needless to say, we hit it off.  To make a long story short, I ended up moving to Portland and we lived together for a couple of years....until we didn't.  I wish I could tell you the reasons why we broke up, but I'm not fully sure.

Fast forward until 2018 and I have been married 23 years with 3 daughters, then divorced.  I am visiting Portland (from my home in Mexico) to see daughter, Michelle, and had posted pictures on Facebook of my trip.  Roger had "friended" me on Facebook some time before and I had accepted.  Of course, the first thing I checked was his marital status, only to learn he was married.  But he connected with me shortly after my trip to Portland to say that he wished that he had had the nerve to suggest we meet for lunch while I was in Portland.

Another fast forward to September 2021 when his wife of 32 years passed away quite suddenly.  I was stunned.  I had realized some time before that I still cared about him.  Did I still love him?  No way to answer that.  But I did care enough to worry about his welfare and how he was navigating the grief, so I decided to connect with him for every holiday that year.  Facebook messages dissolved into phone calls, which, in turn, dissolved into zoom calls.  At that point, I was planning a trip to Portland the following August and he asked if I'd be willing to get  together for lunch or something.  Of course!  

Sometime in April, I believe, Roger asked me if I would be willing for him to come to San Carlos for a visit. I believe I'd mentioned that he should check it out down here, but never in my wildest dreams did I expect that he would accept the offer.  June was the appointed month, and it threw me into a bit of a panic because I didn't know what to expect,  I had also committed myself to never entering into another relationship following the disaster of my last marriage.  As I would say to my friends "I've done my time".

But, needless to say, the visit dissolved into a relationship rather quickly.  After numerous soul searching conversations, the visit dissolved into a relationship that pretty much picked up where it left off some 38 years ago.  Who would have imagined?  I guess the point is to never say never.