It’s A Miracle: Real Life Inspirational Stories, Extraordinary Events and Everyday Wonders. Richard Thomas

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СКАЧАТЬ did you know who it was?” she laughed.

      “I’d recognize that voice anyplace,” Otto replied.

      The call could not have come at a more perfect time, for Otto had also lost his wife of nearly fifty years. And he too had never forgotten his first love. Soon they were writing and talking on a daily basis, and fifty-eight years of separation quickly vanished.

      “You just don’t realize how many times I’ve wondered where you were and what you were doing. And if you were all right,” Betty Jean told Otto. “You’re probably looking just as young as you ever did.

      “And then the talks got a little more personal,” Betty Jean reveals. “We told each other our strengths and weaknesses.

      “We just talked about everything there was to talk about. It was just like we were face-to-face,” she laughs. “And then it became apparent that we were discussing marriage possibilities.”

      “It was unbelievable that we could feel so much love for each other just by talking on the phone like we had,” says Otto.

      “We had made definite plans just over the phone, practically. We’re getting married. If anybody had been there to pronounce us man and wife, we would’ve accepted that,” laughs Betty Jean.

      In the summer of 1999, after not seeing each other for fifty-eight years, Otto and Betty Jean were reunited.

      “My heart was pounding so hard that I could hardly keep it in its place,” says Betty Jean, laughing. “He just took my hand and hung on to it for dear life. And I whispered to him, ‘Don’t ever let go of me again. Don’t ever let go of me again.’ And he said, ‘Don’t worry, I won’t.’”

      Otto kept his promise four weeks later when he pledged to take Betty Jean as his lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, so long as they both should live.

      “Betty Jean is still the little girl that I used to love, and still love,” says Otto.

      “He’s the same as he was when he was a boy,” says Betty Jean. “And I’ve even told him that. I said, ‘You look just like you were.’ When he puts his head down and looks up at me like that, I just see him all over again, sitting there on that school bus when I’d get on the bus. I probably wasn’t sure at the time what that really meant, but I found out later—fifty-eight years later,” she laughs.

      “And we feel that our getting back together was a miracle; our lives are like a dream. It’s something that you just maybe would dream of but not ever expect to happen.”

      She adds, laughing, “I think we’re living happily ever after.”

WRONG NUMBER MARRIAGE

      Dana Herring and Dennis Dunbar first met in 1973 while attending high school in Los Angeles. At the time, they were just casual friends.

      “After initially meeting Dana, I just felt that she had no interest in me,” remembers Dennis. “So I felt that it was just something that would not be worthwhile pursuing.”

      “Dennis was going out with a friend of mine, and I was going out with another person,” recalls Dana. “It was just not convenient.”

      But nine years later, Dennis and Dana met again, at the wedding of mutual friends. And this time, the chemistry between them was different.

      “I thought he looked pretty handsome in his tuxedo,” says Dana. “There was an attraction that night at the wedding, and we talked for a long time. We ended up pretty much staying together that whole night at the wedding. And that was it.”

      “We had a good time, and we just enjoyed each other’s company,” agrees Dennis.

      Dana and Dennis began dating, and over the next few months their romance blossomed. As it became more serious, they made plans to go away together for Memorial Day weekend. But before he picked her up for their getaway, Dennis stopped by the home of his newlywed friends.

      It was a decision that would change all his plans.

      “This girl had come down from San Francisco,” Dennis recalls, “and they wanted to set me up with her. They knew that I was going out with Dana, but they probably didn’t realize how serious the relationship was at the time.

      “They talked me into breaking my date with Dana,” Dennis says.

      Dana, understandably, was quite upset. “I was upset because we did have plans. And, you know, he called at the last minute to cancel,” she says. “I was really angry at the time. I just hung up on him, and that was it.”

      “She didn’t deserve that,” says Dennis. “And I felt like an idiot. I never talked to Dana after that.”

      Dennis ended up marrying the woman who was his blind date that day. But after ten years together the marriage failed, and in 1997, Dennis was once again a bachelor.

      At that time, Dennis owned his own pest control business, and on Labor Day 1997, he was sitting in his office, calling clients to confirm appointments for the following day.

      “There was one customer in particular that I called, left a message that I’d be out tomorrow to take care of her account, left my name and my phone number like I always do, and said if there’s any problem call me back,” recalls Dennis. “The next day I went out to service the account, and for some weird reason, the customer had never gotten my message.”

      But someone else had.

      “I came home from out of town, checked my messages, and one of them struck me as strange,” remembers Dana, “because it was from a man, and he said, ‘Hello, Terry, this is Dennis Dunbar calling from Dunbar Pest Control.’ And I thought the voice sounded very familiar.”

      “That evening the phone rang,” says Dennis, “and it turned out to be a girl who asked if this was the Dennis Dunbar who has a brother named Dan, which I do.”

      Dana recalls, “And I said, ‘This is Dana Herring.’”

      Dennis was shocked to hear from her, and asked how she got his number. “And she said, ‘Well, you called me,’” he remembers. “And it hit me, Wait a second! This other customer didn’t get the message I left. So I got my customer’s card and I repeated the number, which had a 960 prefix. At which point Dana said, ‘How funny. That’s very close to mine. Mine is 906.’”

      He had transposed two numbers. “What a coincidence,” said Dennis.

      “I was literally shaking,” he recalls.

      “One of the first things she said after we chitchatted a bit,” Dennis remarks, “was, ‘If I remember it right, didn’t you stand me up?’ And I was like, ‘Well, but that was a long time ago. I hope you’re not still mad,’ “he chuckles.

      “And he said, ‘You do remember what happened?’” says Dana. “And I said, ‘Yes, I do remember.’ I said, ‘You broke a date with me, and then you married her,’” she laughs.

      Dennis told her about his divorce, and Dana revealed to him that she’d never gotten СКАЧАТЬ