Lost and Found

Lloyd's Story: November of 2003 delivered quite a bombshell. I had traveled about five hours east of Denver to Kansas to visit my parents. I was enjoying the weekend off and decided to look at the shiny new motorcycles at the local dealership.

As I sat on a few bikes, the showroom salesman came over. We talked for a while, and then our conversation became more personal. When he said he had grown up in a small town in central Kansas, it was a town I was familiar with. In fact, I said, "I used to date a girl from there, and her name was Lisa."

The salesman looked much younger than me, so I figured it was "safe" to say her name. I did not expect him to know her at all. Besides, I had dated her a lifetime ago, over 20 years ago. But as I sat there, he replied, "Lisa is my sister." Stunned and skeptical, I looked at him, and I could see his resemblance to her even after all this time.

He continued telling me how Lisa was and that she lived only 30 miles away. I froze in disbelief! How could this be? Was someone playing a trick on me or was this a weird dream? Well, he really was her brother! I did not remember him because 20 years ago he had been only 10 years old.

As our conversation continued and memories started filling my head, I became so overwhelmed by this bombshell of information that I felt like the motorcycle I was sitting on was sitting on top of me! Even though the discussion about Lisa was short, I had to escape. Feeling very awkward, I said I had to leave. Memories of the girl "I let get away" continued to flood my head and my heart. I felt ill, for it all seemed so surreal. During the last 20 years, Lisa had always seemed lost and far away when in actuality she was real and could be found living just down the road.

The next day I went back and left my business card with Lisa's brother. I had written a note on the back. I watched as he put the card in his back pocket; I hoped he wouldn't forget about it and wash it with his laundry. Then I prayed that she would contact me. I wasn't too sure that she would.

Lisa's Story: I was home one evening after work when the phone rang. It was my youngest brother. He jokingly asked me if I wanted to play "This is Your Life." Well, I was skeptical right away, especially when he hinted about an old boyfriend.

One name did flicker dimly in the far reaches of my brain. It was a flicker that, at that moment, I only wanted to extinguish. Then my brother revealed Lloyd's name, my former college boyfriend. The boyfriend I had dated for about a year and a half-off and on and off and on, then ultimately off for good before we went our separate ways, lost touch, and never expected to find each other again.

Since that time my sixteen-year marriage had ended in divorce, and I had only recently started dating. I certainly didn't plan to contact someone who used to be too embarrassed to hold my hand in public. Plus, Lloyd lived over five hours away. About ten days later, however, my curiosity got the best of me, and I cautiously sent him an e-mail. I had no idea what might happen, if anything.

Our Story: After a few weeks of e-mails and phone calls, Lloyd and I decided to meet the day after Thanksgiving. We enjoyed seeing each other and stayed in daily contact from that point on. Even though we lived 400 miles apart, we saw each other about every two weeks, and our relationship continued to grow. Over the years, we had both become better, stronger people, and the positive qualities that had previously drawn us together drew us together once again.

A year later, Lloyd proposed marriage on the same college campus where we had first met twenty years ago. I happily accepted, but we had to retrace our steps, urgently trying to find the engagement ring, which had fallen out of Lloyd's pocket! To our great relief, I spotted the ring lying on the sidewalk near a previous stop. The ring--lost and found, just like us.

Now we have been married over a year and a half and are in the process of adopting our first child. We hold hands every day and are best friends, a couple who feels truly blessed, proving that love and joy are possible at any stage of life. After twenty years of separation, we are no longer lost but found, and for that we give thanks.