Sometimes I tell people that I am not very lucky, but when I think about it, I realize that there have been times when I have won the jackpot. I’m a romantic at heart, someone who always believed that somewhere in the world the perfect person was searching for me. I worried that I might never encounter the man of my dreams, but I was hopeful. Somehow I literally stumbled on to meeting that person without any idea of how much my life was going to change. 

I did not even want to attend the party where it all happened. I was interested in someone else at the time, even though I don’t think that the feeling was mutual. I was hoping that somehow I might find a way to make the attraction go both ways, and the invitation to a birthday celebration was an interruption of my plans. My mom convinced me of my duty to family, and so it was with great reluctance that I fulfilled that role. 

The whole affair was rather dull for the greater part of the evening. I had already met most of those in attendance, and they felt like brothers rather than prospects for a relationship other than friendship. Without warning a new young man entered stylishly late, and I was almost immediately smitten even though he appeared to be more interested in my cousin. I felt almost giddy talking with him and later chided myself for acting like a school girl. I was both surprised and delighted when he called me later to ask me out on a date. It felt as though the heavens were acting in concert.

The date was even more wonderful than I had expected it to be. The two of us became inseparable from that time forward. I had never before felt so comfortable with being myself as when I was with him. We were two people who were totally in sync. We liked the same music, and enjoyed the same kind of conversations and activities. Soon he was pronouncing his love for me and I for him. He christened our romance with a lovely gold charm bracelet with a heart shaped charm on which he had engraved the date on which we met with the words, “Now and Forever.”

That promise is as strong as ever after fifty two years of marriage. We have had great fun together and weathered terrible storms. The comfort that we provide each other never changes. He is my best friend, my confidante, my rock. I sometimes pinch myself when I realize the tremendous odds of finding “the one” who was meant to be for me. I am forever grateful for that birthday party, and I shudder to think that I might have missed it if not for my mother. 

I received a challenge to write the first couple of stanzas of a love song that describes my love, so herewith is my lame attempt at becoming a lyricist. I call my song, “Now and Forever”

I dreamed of you before we met.

I knew you in my heart.

You came to me without warning,

And I sensed my life was set.

You are “the One”

You are “the One”

My “Now and Forever” 

You are “the One.”

We shared some fun.

We shared our dreams.

And the the heavens seemed to know 

Our heats would be as one.

You are “the One”

You are “the One”

My “Now and Forever”

You are “the One”

Challenge completed…but I think I’ll stick to writing prose.