The Parting: The Flame Relights

Nancy knew this day would come.  John would not go with her on vacation.  He was a senior and wanted his own life.  Vacationing with mom was not part of the plan.  Besides, he needed to work during the summer to make money for college.  That meant Nancy would travel to her home town by herself. 

When she was contacted about the class reunion, Nancy was asked the best way to keep in contact.  She listed her home address, phone number, and email.  The letter she received stated up to date information would be posted on a Facebook page.  Of course, she knew about Facebook and what it was.  John and Jack and many people she knew used Facebook.  Nancy did not then.  With John’s help, she created a Facebook account and joined the group for the class reunion. 

She thoroughly enjoyed catching up with old classmates and neighbors.  Then came the day Nancy found the name, Tim Williams.  Her heart jumped and memories flooded in.  Tim was such a sweet young man.  She fondly remembered the day he nervously met her in the hallway at school.  He stammered as he spoke and she honestly did not know what was going on until he finally said the words, “Would you be my girlfriend?” 

She remembered showing her friend, Chrissie Caldwell, Tim’s class ring and that night the two of them wrapped yarn on it so it would fit her finger.  Oh, those were the days, Nancy thought. 

At first, she felt self conscious about sending Tim a friend request.  Then she remembered it was the 21st century.  Things are more progressive nowadays.  Women do send men friend requests on Facebook.  A couple days later she got on Facebook again and saw that Tim had accepted her friend request and sent her a private message. 

The two of them caught up on each other’s lives.  Tim had two boys and a girl.  Both boys were in college but his daughter was a freshman in high school.  He stayed close to home.  He had taken care of his parents.  Then his mom died few years ago and dad was now in a nursing home.  The year mom died was particularly rough.  He and his wife got a divorce.  She was unfaithful.  Nancy hurt for him.  Both of those major events in the same year must have been devastating. 

Nancy related her life, her work, volunteer work at the food pantry, the boys, her husband’s death and the difficulties Jack adjusting to civilian life after serving in Afghanistan.  Both of them mentioned how nice it was to reconnect after all the years. 

After Nancy logged out of Facebook following their last private message, she felt at peace.  To her, it felt like she was where she was supposed to be.  Reconnecting with old friends was nice and she looked forward to the reunion.  She reviewed her life.  She has a loving family.  She has great friends, past and present.  She loved her church, the volunteer work and paid work.  She will never find a cure for cancer or make an alternate fuel for cars but she had lived a good life.  The whole world would not mourn when she died but some people would.  They were the only ones that mattered to her.