I met Hubby #2 when I was working at a rehabilitation hospital in Denver in 1977. I was the x-ray tech and he was a physical therapist. We didn’t have our first date till a year later and married a year after that. He was a brave young man to take on a woman with a young child while he was entering medical school. Those were truly the best years of our youth. We were so poor but we lived on love and generic macaroni and cheese. We were idyllic and full of hope for the future. We rode our bikes everywhere and took advantage of every free activity we could find. We were young. We were happy. Then, I don’t know…life happened. He finished medical school and residency, joined a practice in another town, we put our noses to the grindstone and didn’t look up in time to see the truck that hit us. Not literally, of course. But our marriage fell apart in pieces on the floor. It took us about five years to break and many more to heal.

I remember after we split up…those desperate few months that turned to years and I would pray the same prayer, over and over and over. “Please Lord, heal my family!” I was desperate to have my family back together, thinking this had to just be a midlife crisis and some day he was going to wake up and realize it and we’d fix it and be a family again. But a month turned into a year and that turned into three and I couldn’t deny that it was really over. I was so disappointed in God. He had totally ignored my prayers.

Nearly fifteen years have gone by since we split. We both remarried and moved on. We were civil, but still not close in a way I knew we could be…in the way that I wanted us to be. Then Mr. Virgo died. It rocked all of us involved, including both my exes. Hubby #2 really turned around, we buried the hatchet, so to speak and have become really good friends. I love him and his wife so much and they are my family.

Last night we celebrated his father’s 90th birthday. We gathered for a casual pizza dinner. Today we will all go to the zoo in the afternoon and then have dinner at a fancy restaurant. We took the birthday cake and an extra pizza to my father-law’s apartment last night to meet with more family that got in too late for dinner. As we shut it down for the night, my ex…my lifelong friend…the father of my child…came to me, kissed me on my cheek, and said, “I’m so, so happy you came. Pop loves you so much. This was just a beautiful thing, having us all here together.” Then I remembered my prayers of long ago…”Lord, please heal my family!” And He did…in a way that is SO much better than I could have ever imagined! <3