The Kindness of People... Part 2 The Conclusion (An original story)

jrcornel (84)in #story • 8 years ago

continuation from Part 1...

https://steemit.com/story/@jrcornel/the-kindness-of-people-part-1-an-original-story

Luckily my father was able to make it to Arizona mostly OK. Once he got there he was able to land a great job with a great company and his brother even helped him out for a bit until he could get on his feet. After a few months he was able to support himself and started to make a new life for himself in a brand new place. My mother (his gf at the time) decided she wanted to move out there with him as well, but only if they planned on getting married first. He decided that seemed like it was a fair deal, so they got engage and were married a couple years later...

Fast forward almost 40 years and we get to the present day. My father is still living in sunny Arizona with his wife of 35 years and he now has 2 kids, myself and my brother. He is also still working for that same great company that hired him over 30 years ago. Things didn't turn out all that bad for him considering how they started out. However, he felt there was always a little piece of him that was missing... a piece of him that had died that day in the fire that burned up all his belongings he had acquired during the first 22 years of his life...

Just a couple weeks ago he got a letter inviting him to attend his 40th high school reunion. He didn't think much of it at first because he had never really gone to one of these things before. Actually, since he graduated, he hadn't gone to one high school reunion. But, after thinking about it for a bit, he realized this may be his last chance to see some of his old friends again if he didn't make the effort to go back now. So, he and his wife (my mom) decided they would attend this particular high school reunion. They packed up their stuff and headed out on a plane a week later.

As they arrived back in the small town out in the Midwest where they grew up, there is another side of the story that had been unfolding... You see, there was another girl back in high school who apparently also had a thing for my father, but she was certain he didn't feel the same about her so she just kept her crush a secret... But, that didn't stop her from collecting all things related to my dad and putting them in a scrap book. Like I mentioned earlier, he was an athlete, so there were constantly articles in the local paper about his sporting events with pictures, scores, and quotes from him and his friends. She even took year book clippings and pictures and put them all together in her own special book about my dad. Yes, she had a pretty strong crush. She never got up the courage to actually tell my dad how she felt or even tell him about her secret scrap book that she had put together for him and then after high school graduation they both moved away and went their separate directions.

As the years passed she had thought about calling him up or just sending him the scrapbook but seeing as he was married now she didn't want it to come off in the wrong manner. So, she held on to it. She decided she would give it to him in person at their 10 year class reunion. They could all have a nice laugh and he would get to keep a nice gift that she had made all those years ago. However, this is where I come in... you see I was born right about the time they were planning on attending his 10 year reunion, so they didn't get to go. So the girl showed up with the scrap book but my father never showed. She decided she would just hang on to it and maybe some day their paths would cross.

Over the next 30 years she moved around a lot and was always packaging and unpacking things. My father as well. However, news reached her through her friends that my father was planning on attending their 40th high school reunion. So, she, not even knowing if she still had the scrap book, dug all over for that book. Rummaging through storage and dusty boxes, finally pulling it out of an old box.

Surprised that she even still had the book, she decided she would bring the book the reunion and when the time was right, she would give it to my father. On the day of the reunion she found my father (it wasn't hard because only a handful of their old classmates showed up) and told him about the book she had created for him. How she had collected all those pictures and memories and put them in this one special book and also how she had been holding on to it for all these years with something telling her not to throw it away.

There was no romantic feelings at this point as they both had gone about their lives, but she said something inside of her just kept telling her that she needed to give this book to my father and not just throw it away. So she had held onto it...

When my father heard this story... a tear came to his eye. He could not believe the kindness of this person. She had no idea that all of his stuff had burned up and he didn't have any of these memories that she had saved for him. He could not believe all the history that was in this one little book. He literally had nothing left of his childhood or high school days and here out of the blue, this lady was handing him a giant piece of his life back. Everyone at the reunion all gathered around and talked about the good ol days while going through the scrap book reminiscing on the glory days from their past.

My father is forever grateful that he could have this little portion of his life restored to him... all because of the kindness of a human heart. It just goes to show that it is never too late to do a kind thing...