A Magic Gift of Love

The Unopened Letter

With the Universe, there is no beginning, no end. Life and love are eternal so there is no death as we have been taught to believe. 

When there is a death here on earth, we have mixed emotions. To the Consciously Aware, we feel a sense of joy they’re returning Home to a vast loving Universe, and yet, we still grieve for the huge empty crater their loss will leave in our life and our heart.

We know life must go on, but a memory is like a jack-in-the box.  You never know when it will pop up again, but it's always when we least expect it.           Sometimes we cry; sometimes we smile; sometimes we only sigh, but memories need validation and we must give them that. Only then, can we put them back, close the door and move on.

The other day, I validated a memory.  I remembered a magic experience from over fifty years ago.  My first husband was an army combat medic.  We were still newlyweds when he was sent to Vietnam.

Doug had been gone a month when my grandmother passed away.  We were all busy with funeral arrangements and we had each other to lean on, but I knew this would be sad for Doug. They had been great friends.  They had a special bond and often spoke the language of recipes and cooking.  Of course, Doug was also one of her most faithful taste testers!  She really was a wonderful cook and her baking was unsurpassed. 

I sent him the news in a letter but mail was so slow to find him, it was two full months before I got a letter back from him saying he got the news and he was saddened.

I was thinking about how long it took for him to get the news.  If something happened to me, I wanted him to have something to hold onto, so he would know how much he meant to me.  I had an urge to write a poem for him to put in the envelope with my daily letter.

The poem wasn't hard to write.  The words flowed as though coming from outside me. This was something new but so was the letter’s subject matter. It was done. I had written a poem with love from the viewpoint of a devoted and dying wife saying her last goodbye to a beloved husband.

Doug was killed before he got my letter and poem. Three months after the funeral, the mailman brought a stack of sixteen unopened letters I had sent to him in Vietnam.

The Army sent a letter of apology with the unopened letters, stating because of his unit's placement in Vietnam, often the mail took a while to catch up with the men. Unfortunately, these letters had not found him in country.

I sat on my bed and read the letters, giving in to fresh waves of grief that washed over me with each letter. Nothing could have prepared me for how I would feel when I found the poem inside the unread letter. Since he had never seen the poem, it now held an entirely new meaning, as though he had written the poem for me.

When I stumbled across this memory, I had to ask, how could I ever have forgotten or buried this magical gift ...

If Only a Minute

If I only have a minute
to say goodbye to you
I will whisper what I’m thinking
when my time on earth is through.

I'll tell you how I’ve loved you
and how happy I have been
please don't think of me as leaving,
I know we’ll meet again.

Wish I could hold you close once more
and kiss away your tears.
We'd talk of everything we’ve shared
through all our loving years.

My time with you has ended
and He calls for me to come
Just know I’ve always loved you.
Please take care of everyone.

Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
Quora Top Writer 2018.
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