Memoir
How Mom’s Love Story Led to An Unexpected Heartfelt Connection
Sometimes life lessons emerge years later
He had succumbed to throat cancer, only able to speak through a tracheal tube. I would have never expected to be the one person he requested a call from before taking his last breath. His mechanical breathing unnerved me, but his delayed intermittent words will live on inside my heart forever.
We had lost touch at least ten years before. I hadn’t spoken to my stepfather since my half sister and I were on our way to visit our real dad in the hospital after he suffered a stroke. Dad had survived brain surgery from an aneurism, hadn’t awakened.
Sis and I had stopped at a grocery store down the street, saw my mother’s fourth ex-husband in line. What are the odds?
He told us he was leaving California the following week. I would probably never see my stepfather again, and my biological father would never be the same. I felt a dual sadness for both men who were leaving me within the same week.
He was the only man in Mom’s life who represented a father to me, treated me like his own. I was en route to see the man who shared my DNA and treated me like he cared less I was his own. Serendipity in her finest hour.
