One Photo Started It All

Fate really has a strange way of bringing people together.

Two years ago, my mother gave me a unique Christmas present. It may not have been bought in some fancy gift store but its value is much more than any item I could think of. She casually handed me this tiny plastic bag, in which she kept my childhood pictures. I have been searching for them for years, but I eventually gave up because my efforts of recovering my "captured memories" have all been in vain. It was just amazing that she gave it to me at exactly the right time.

One month prior to this incident, I met somebody interesting. He's not entirely new to me. Having lived in a relatively small town all my life, I know him well enough based on friends' and acquaintances' stories. However, unknown to many, I have had a secret crush on him for ages. It started in grade school, and went on until my college years. He is somebody I admired from afar, to say the least. If there is such a term as "closet stalker," that was me! I knew who he was dating. I knew his former girlfriends.. He was so near, yet so far.

I have gotten over that feeling (or so I thought) when I saw him in church with a former girlfriend. To me, that was the validation I was waiting for. I could not for the life of me waste my time on a guy who can never be mine. And so, I have forgotten about him, and along with it the stupid feelings I have nurtured through the years.

Everything went wayward when he rose from his ashes (like the proverbial phoenix), one fateful afternoon, November 1, 2007. We were formally introduced to each other as I was inching my way out of the memorial park. Yes, it was Undas! The feelings that I have long buried quickly stirred up once again. All the while I thought it would just be a one-time thing ---- a random meeting meant to be forgotten. Well, it wasn't.

The childhood pictures that my mother gave me proved more meaningful after I met him. One photo taken during my first birthday party (1980) shows a tiny me in the arms of my mother who was blowing my candle.Looking on were 7 kids. As I zoomed into the faces of my guests, I noticed a very familiar face. Yes, it was his 5-year old self in a striped polo shirt, and beside him was his lovely sister....

This story is in dire need of an ending....