When I was about five or six years old, I saw a picture of Abraham Lincoln for the first time. It gave me this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t explain it. Through the rest of my childhood whenever I saw a picture of Abraham Lincoln I would get the same feeling in the pit of my stomach, not a bad feeling just a feeling, like I needed to remember something. I avoided five dollar bills and pennies just so I didn’t have to look at his image. I got five dollars a week allowance from my parents and they had to give it to me in one dollar bills just so I didn’t have to look at his picture.
Fast forward to my freshman year in high school. I was walking down the hallway one day when I saw a boy come walking towards me, he took my breath away. It wasn’t because he was so good looking, although he was, It was that same feeling in the pit of my stomach that I now recognized as a need to remember something. Every time I saw this boy, I got the same feeling in the pit of my stomach. At the end of my sophomore year I was in my bedroom with my friend looking at our yearbooks, and I saw his picture from a play he was in. For some reason, I pointed to his picture and told my friend that I would marry him someday. Of course, she looked at me like I was nuts.
Now fast forward to when I was 19 years old, while out on a date with a boyfriend we went to a pizza parlor. I looked up and behind the counter was the boy from high school. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There he was, and so was that same feeling in my stomach. That feeling that I needed to remember something only it was stronger than ever.
He didn’t call our number for us to pick up our pizza, instead he brought it to our table. It turned out that he was friends with the boy I was dating. We were introduced. I know my face was red as I couldn’t control my feelings inside without it showing on my face. I soon arranged a double date, that way the boy could go out with my girlfriend and I could get to know him a little. My girlfriend wasn’t interested in him, but of course I was. I talked her into going to the pizza parlor and to go out into the lobby and use the phone. While she was gone I gave the boy my phone number. It wasn’t long after that he called me and we spoke on the phone for quite a while. One of the things he told me was that his birthday is February 12.
I knew at that moment that was what I was supposed to remember. It wasn’t Abraham Lincoln it was his birthday. Right from the beginning I knew him. We both felt that we knew each other well and yet could explain it. We became inseparable. One day while walking home from his apartment I saw my friend who I had looked through the yearbook with and told her that I was now dating the boy I said I would marry. She was shocked.
We will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in September. There has to be something to reincarnation, the afterlife, and predestination. We’ve never had to work out our marriage, it just always flowed easily. He is my soulmate and I am his.
-Susan