Home Alone ( Redacted from a Letter to an Old Friend)

Your earlier musing about having more time to yourself when your boys grow up and leave home reminded me of when my wife left me and subsequently moved back East from Indiana.
I still was in Indiana, but awarded liberal visiting rights (I would drive back East at least once a month, driving all day Friday and all day Sunday in order to spend a Saturday with my children), which also included them spending 6 weeks each Summer with me.
They were about 7 and 4 when (my ex-wife) moved back East (to escape her 2nd husband, who was abusive), and I was just diagnosed with what they thought was terminal cancer.
All my friends said it would be impossible for me to be a full time single father (even for only a 6 week stretch each Summer), and, frankly, so did I, but I couldn't give up without trying it.
Those Summers passed so quickly, and it never failed to break my heart to say goodbye to them when I would take them back to my ex-wife.
I don't think there was one time, even on my weekend visits, that I didn't return home in a blur of tears.
I also had the right to have them in my home every other Christmas, but, after doing that the first Christmas, it just was too hard on my ex-wife (even though she didn't complain, not even once), and so I told her that I'd just come back East and spend time with my children each year after they had already had their Christmas with her.
And so it went until 1989, when I finally was able to move back to this area.
By then, David was 15 and Sarah was 12.
And now, they're both grown, and ....

For Want of a Nail

.......your last email triggered a cascade of thoughts, some of which I wanted to further share with you.
I've noticed, and not just in my own life, that often people are attracted to others but don't let them know, thus losing out on opportunities that might have led to better things.
I remember in High School, I thought XXXX XXXX was about the smartest and prettiest girl on the planet, but was far too shy and insecure to even speak to her.
Twenty years later, at our High School reunion, she came up to me and confessed that she previously had a tremendous crush on me when we were in High School, but thought I was "stuck up" and not interested at all in her, because I never spoke to her, and would look away when she caught my eye.
When XXXXX newly joined the Church, I visited with him in his new ward (LDS congregation).
An incredibly vivacious young lady quietly approached me there and asked me if there was anything she could do to help him feel at home in the ward; confessing that she really wanted to get his attention, but he wasn't responding to any of her hints.
I told her that I'd talk with him and tell her of her interest and availability.
He was astounded.
He also was attracted to her, but didn't think she would be interested in him.
Even then, he was shy and laid back, and still didn't take any initiative.
Time passed. She went on a mission, and eventually married someone else.
All of that reminds of that old poem which says something like, "For want of a nail, a (horse)shoe was lost..." etc., etc., until the final consequence was the fall of a nation.
It really is just like God tells us (D&C 64:33 & 123:15-16, 1 Nephi 16:29, and Alma 37:41).
I noticed circumstances such as these in the lives of many others, too.
Often women will wait for men to pursue them, and, if they don't, let opportunities be lost.
I remember one sister in the XXXXXXXX ward who was very interested in me, and giving me what she thought were really obvious signals, but, like many men, I didn't have a clue about what was going on.
Finally, she just came right out and told me that she was interested, and I was both pleased and grateful, even though we soon both discovered that we weren't a good match. (Nope - I won't mention her name, because you probably know her.)
Anyway, when I talk to and think about others and what's going on with their lives and relationships, I feel really grateful for my experiences.
Unlike so many others, I had a great and wonderful storybook love, and, although the relationship didn't endure,
it was so worth it.
I have absolutely no regrets - none whatsoever.