And old friend sends a wonderful "Hello!"

There is a comment to the previous post from Michael, reconnecting me with his daughter Maureen. She fought a tremendous battle with her fiance Jared as he struggled with and died brain cancer about 8 years ago. I met them in my former life as a newspaper reporter and wrote about the fight and his death.

He died days before what would have been their wedding day. I stayed in touch with Maureen for a short time after Jared died and then she moved on. I assumed (right or wrong) that I might have been another tough reminder of what she had gone through and that she needed to let go of some things that were painful. Having been there myself (to a far lesser degree, but there nonetheless), I can understand it might have been what she was feeling. I know I've had to push a lot of things aside.

Whatever the reasons, it's over and done. I'm excited to hear from Michael and hope he'll be able to put me in touch with Maureen.

I thought about Jared often during my sally and wondered if he'd had the gift of a few more years before his cancer took his life.

It's Memorial Day. A good day for remembering. Things happen for a reason. Some one of these days we'll figure it all out, right?