We had known each other for months. We had corresponded twice a day, we talked on the phone three times a day, sometimes for two hours at a time. And now, Thanksgiving weekend, we were to meet – face to face – to assure the voice and words were those of the heart and soul.
It started innocently – a hello across the miles from one blog to another. A small story about life, then one of our respective pasts, and more of what the perfect life would be. The exchange of photos, telephone numbers and, at last, that first phone call. Voices already known, ones that already existed in our heads. And our hearts. Reaching with racing hearts towards something more. He said it first and my mind soared. How could it be possible? Hours and hours of phone calls, hundreds of emails. All about ourselves, our families, making decisions for a future together. But we had yet to meet, so a trip to San Diego was set up.
And the day before the plane took off, another phone call. His son had been diagnosed with a terminal cancer. He couldn’t, shouldn’t come. He needed to be with his family. Months went by and although the phone calls and emails lessened, the passion didn’t stop. The story grew and grew but his son deteriorated and finally passed away. And then – silence. Weeks later, a call describing how he had been hospitalized, how his mental state was such that we needed to wait, to be patient. And the phone calls were no longer daily.
Finally an email about how his job, his friends, and his family had all set him aside, no one was accepting of a relationship between us. Then silence.
He died two years later.
And in looking for truth, I found the lies. The dead son, alive and well on Facebook, the job a sham, the dead wife just a divorcee. Was it a con? And if so, he had asked nothing of me but love and affection. So was I truly conned, or just there for someone who may have needed what I so freely gave.
One night, many months after the obituary appeared, my bed was flooded by the light of our Moon. And just as we had done so many times before on the phone, I looked up into that Moon and spoke to him…and forgave him.
There is a greater story, of course, but for that – you should read the book.