It was them. I was sure. I caught my breath.<\/p>\n
My husband and I were out to dinner, and when I looked up from my menu I saw them, intensely familiar and yet different. They were older now, the strain of years showing, but those faces had burned themselves into my memory. \u201cThat\u2019s them,\u201d I said. \u201cThe happy couple.\u201d<\/p>\n
My husband looked at me, nonplussed. For about half a year I\u2019d stared at pieces of this couple\u2019s life, photos in an old album. We\u2019d found it in the gutter on a street by our house. A handsome young man at his high school graduation. A dark-haired, exotic beauty winking at the camera. Their backyard wedding. Babies growing into toddlers, playing with grandparents. It was the story of a happy family. No one could have meant to throw away these precious moments.<\/p>\n
If only I could find these people,<\/em> I thought. And yet where to start? I had no idea. So I kept the album, thumbed through it from time to time, wondering.<\/p>\n Now, improbably, here they were. There was something so different about them, though. As if they were strangers to each other. They picked at their food. I couldn\u2019t contain myself. I shot up from my seat and approached them. \u201cI have something that belongs to you,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n Immediately, I felt like I was intruding. Yes, they said, they\u2019d lost the album, among other items looted from a storage locker. Storage locker? Maybe these photos hadn\u2019t been missed. I jotted down my address, unsure if they even wanted the album returned.<\/p>\n The next day, the man showed up at our house. \u201cWe were caught off guard,\u201d he explained apologetically. Then he took the album from me and flipped through it, smiling wistfully.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see, this was back when I was sober. Before my drug addiction destroyed our marriage. I\u2019m getting my life together, and hoped my wife and I could be a family again. If we could remember what connected us. That dinner last night was the first step,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He held the album to his chest. \u201cThen you ran up, offering us this.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe, I hoped, because it was meant to be the next step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was them. I was sure. I caught my breath. My husband and I were out to dinner, and when I looked up from my menu I saw them, intensely familiar and yet different. They were older now, the strain of years showing, but those faces had burned themselves into my memory. \u201cThat\u2019s them,\u201d I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":26184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[151],"ppma_author":[2197],"class_list":["post-14964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gods-grace","tag-mysterious-ways"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n