Amelia

These stepping stones have become a part of me.
They have seen me through my story….
…As a little girl playing with the frogs…
…As a lass reading to escape the mediocrity of my world…
…As a young woman falling in love…
…And as an elderly lady leaving this world to spend eternity with him, the one she loved…

I found them at age three.
Daddy took me to see the frogs.
We played there for hours and we laughed.
But as I got older, daddy and I didn’t have time together.
…We grew apart…
…Away from each other…
…Away from being father and daughter…
But the steps stayed for me.

At 13, I was a lost young girl. Home wasn’t a place I wanted to be, so I took a book and ran to the steps…
…I’d let them be my magic carpet to take me to the stars…
…Or my tree house to scout an entire island…
…Or even just my rock to keep me grounded somewhere…
The stepping stones became my stability when I was lost.

At 21, I left home.
I took pictures of the stepping stones with me to remind me of what I had in them…
…But it wasn’t the same…
…It wasn’t like being there and having the indescribable feeling of solidity…
And so I visited them nearly every other weekend.
I’d drive to that little stream and just sit and listen to the brook pass by me and my stepping stones.

And then…

…I met him.

Never before had I seen another person at my stepping stones other than my dad.
But, that beautiful spring day, there he was.
…Golden hair shining in the slivers of sunlight beaming down…
…Rose tinted lips smiling slightly in the peaceful enjoyment of the world around him…
…Sitting so quietly on my stepping stones.

I fell in love right then and there.
…No words were needed…
…No names…
…No gestures…
…Simply a look and a smile.

We met there every week for nearly a year.
We and the stones would sit and laugh together…
…Weep together…
…Argue and spat together…
…But importantly always together.

We had our wedding pictures taken there on a beautiful spring day just like the one on which we first saw one another.
We spent our lives thanking God for those stepping stones…
…for the years we had shared…
…And for letting us find each other…

After 62 wonderful years, we took one last visit to the stepping stones.

He took my hand and led me to the middle stone…
…There I sat in his loving arms feeling safe…
…Feeling loved…
…Feeling free…

I remembered all the times I shared with him…my children…my daddy…
I closed my eyes as he held me in his arms and I slipped away as he whispered tenderly to me…

‘The stones brought us together, my sweet. How appropriate that they shall take us to eternity together…to love you evermore…my darling Amelia.’