While my most recent post may have led you to believe that I’m a cynic when it comes to love, that’s not the case.
I appreciate a good love story just as much as, if not more than, the next girl. Just ask my brother, Matt – he’d be happy to crucify my rom-com favorites for you.
Something the people closest to me know is that I regularly lose sleep over ‘sad’ things that happen to other people. I use quotations around the word sad for a reason. It could be as trivial as a waiter that dropped a plate. It could be a stranger losing their keys. It could even be a person on a reality show that is disliked by the other contestants. I have this weird, wrongly-placed guilt about basically everything. And while I should probably speak to my therapist about that, I’ll skip to the point of this post.
I read an article on Refinery29 today with a title that’s made for Haley Brennan clickbait: WWII Veteran Reunites with Love After 70 Years. (Click here to read it now so my rambling below makes sense!)
The second I started reading it, I became sad. Instead of being thrilled that the story has a happy ending, with the long-lost couple reunited, I dwelled on the fact that they lived apart for so long, and that he thought he had been rejected all of these years.
As I reached the end of the story, I was so confused. This was supposed to be a happy, uplifting story, wasn’t it? Why was I feeling so bummed?
After a while, I came back to it and decided to watch the video (I’m usually anti-video and strictly text). Seeing Norwood (um, have a cuter name why don’t you?!) talk about reconnecting with Joyce filled me with so much happiness. Seeing the joy on his wrinkled face and watching their blue-veined hands quiver as they touched arms gave me butterflies!
And that’s when I realized that it’s not sad that they lived all of these years apart. As my mom always reminds me, everything happens for a reason. Norwood and Joyce both lived fulfilling, happy lives with their respective spouses. Norwood’s eyes sparkle with love and appreciation when he mentions his late wife and the children they raised together.
Joyce decided on a whim to have her son look up Norwood…they found an article about him…her son thought to contact the author of the article…the author still had Norwood’s information…both Norwood and Joyce are still alive and widowed…
I realize that the above is a grammatically incorrect run on sentence, but how crazy is that series of events?!
Timing. Is. Everything.
Call me a hopeless romantic, but I truly believe that Norwood and Joyce were meant to live separate lives until ultimately reuniting.
And I think their story is meant to be told.
Colorfully (and cheesily) Yours,
Haley
