Coincidences?

As my bio states, I work for "midwest retailer." As far as this story goes, that means that Paige and I are aproaching our 17th anniversary and before last year, we had never spent Christmas Eve/Day with her parents. Last year, for the first time, I committed to being gone over Christmas. So, I found myself standing in line at the local airport at 5am on December 20th with a sleepy wife and sleepy 3yr old son waiting to get checked in for a flight. To my surprise, standing in front of us in line was my cousin Kelly! He was on his way back to Cincinati after spending the weekend with his parents. He had only be on his current job for about 18 months and had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas day. He got his seat changed and sat across the aisle from me. As my family went back into active sleeping (from the passive shuffling they had been doing), Kelly and I talked. It turned out that he was overnighting in Greenville, SC on Christmas eve. That was our destination airport, about 10 miles from Paige's Aunt Helen's and about 35 miles from her parents. We quickly arranged that I would pick him up at the airport on Christmas eve and he would come stay with us.

I met his flight on the 24th, and Kelly and I had a great talk as we drove to Paige's parents. As promised, he kept the secret that I missed the turn and we went 10-15 miles in the wrong direction (towards Charlotte, NC); Paige and her family never found out! We finally got to the house and had a fantastic ham dinner (my secret recipe!!!) and lots of family fun. Kelly got to meet Paige's family, including her brother Ross. Cooper was very excited that "Cousin Kelly" was spending Christmas with us; he talked about it for days. Early the next morning, I got up and drove Kelly to the airport. The time was way to short, but it was great that we happened, by coincidence, to be in the same town and he did not have to spend Christmas alone. A quick hug in the unloading zone and he was off to work and I was driving back up the mountain to be there when Cooper got up to see what Santa Clause brought him.

I saw Kelly again in February, but last Christmas is the time I will remember him most by. It was the only time I saw him in his work uniform, and we talked about how much he loved his job and loved traveling, living in Cincinati, etc.

I don't think I believe in conincidences that much. Rather, I think this was a planned event that we never realized at the time. It ws a last chance to spend time with Kelly before he was gone way to soon.

Cooper doesn't really understand what is going on, but when he get's older, I hope he remembers "Cousin Kelly" as I do, with a smile, eating Chrismas Eve Ham, and having fun with family.