This year, again, I was prepared for a very quiet alone Christmas.  I am grateful that for once my negative expectations were a lie!  There have been a wealth of suprises and the call I got this morning fills my heart with warmth.

I will call him Mr.B.  He called a few minutes ago and sounded warm and happy.  He should be.  He has been blessed with health repair this year and is pain free.  He is one of the loves of my life, and probably my favorite mistake! B was the romantic man who gave me my favorite gift.  A year on an island in an old battered cabin in North Carolina.  It's been 15 years since we were there together.  I grew up in Iowa and didn't see or smell the Ocean until I was about 28 years old.  When I divorced in 1990 I was drawn to live on the coast of North Carolina and so moved there in 1993. I was working as a short order cook in a greasy spoon when a gal I knew told me about this island just off the coast.  She told me there was a ferry running back and forth about three times a day during the heighth of fishing season.  The ride was cheap, only ten bucks to and fo, so the next day I had off I jumped the ferry and rode to the island.  I was so full of questions that I bugged the Captain and the first mate with so many simple questions!  Like a kid it was "was that?"  "why do they do that?'  They were so kind and seemed to be enjoying the share of a lifetime of their knowledge with me.

When the ferry docked it backed into a high metal platform that eased up and down with a pully and there was a tall, bearded, man working the electric switch.  I really didn't notice and took off with my bag down the sandy lane tword the sound of waves crashing on the beach.  I had all the things I could want for a sunny, splashy day.  I walked and walked and when I was tired I took a dry spot on the beach close to a little community of ragged, shaggy old timey cabins.  I had so many questions, but the calm serenity sort of pushed them aside as I ate my lunch of sandwich, apple and warm pepsi.  I knew that that day was the best day I had had since I had become a divorcee. 

It was almost time for the ferry so I started packing up my stuff and then the man from the dock came up the beach and crouched down to speak to me.  He asked me my name and all the simple questions a stranger asks of a stranger.  We had a nice visit and I felt I had known him for a very long time.  He invited me to spend the next weekend with him and he would show me the whole island if I wanted to come.  I wasn't young and totally stupid.  I told him that I would come over, in fact I would LOVE to but I wasn't prepared to sleep with a stranger.  He told me that was ok and he had several beds in the caretakers cabin.  I REALLY wasn't attracted to him, but I WAS really attracted to the island.  I came back the next weekend and for the next year I lived there, visiting my home on the mainland rarely.  It was a precious love affair that I will always be grateful for...ALWAYS.  Of course, it ended badly and I was left to return to Denver with a broken heart.  We always stayed in touch and we ALWAYS remained friends.