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A Golden Seat Assignment
Submitted by: A Believer
TexasA grateful and loving woman living the best years of her life right in the here and now!
This story is rather long, but it is a perfect testament of the the way the Universe intricately arranges itself to benefit those who Believe. This event happened a few years ago, before I came into contact with The Secret, but I feel I had been practicing the tenets of it long before.
I was flying home from a trip and decided that I would ask the Universe to put me in a seat that would enable me to help someone in need. I made my way towards the back of the plane and took an aisle seat. As the plane filled, a small family made their way into a few seats across from me, but had to be separated because there was not enough seats together for them. I happily volunteered my seat, thinking that this was my sign to help someone, but the family insisted that their seat assignments were fine with them. You can imagine I was a little mystified, thinking my grand scheme to help someone in need was rebuffed, albeit in a kind manner.
Soon, along came a young woman who asked to move into my row by the window, which was fine with me. That left the middle seat between us empty. While the plane was still filling up, the young woman asked me if I would take her picture, and she held up a camera for me. I was a little surprised by this request but I gladly took her picture. She started to explain to me that this was her first airplane trip and she wanted to document it for her family. She soon explained that she was traveling to meet her father, whom she had never met–a man who left her mother before she was born and who had never had contact with her. She learned of him through a social media website inquiry directed to her from one of his offspring.
Again, as this conversation was taking place, I was surprised by the intimate tone of our talk. She admitted that she was not sure she could be civil to her father, and that her anger over his abandonment of her and her mother might jeopardize her future with him. Amazingly, I felt I could help her, as my own father had left my mother, myself, and several other siblings when we were very young. We never saw him again.
Then, just as I was thinking that this woman’s situation was the exact answer to my request to be of help to someone in need, here comes a tall, robust, smiling man, very obviously sauntering down the aisle toward the back of the plane looking for a seat. The only seat left on the whole plane was the one between the young woman and I.
He asks me if he can sit in the middle, I make way for him, and he very ceremoniously plops into the seat. The plane begins to pull away from the gate, and immediately he begins talking away to me about inconsequential things, periodically knudging me on my arm to make his point. I don’t know what to make of him, but decide that there’s no other choice than to humor him.
After listening to his good-natured chatting and enduring his friendly knudging for awhile, I realized I hadn’t heard the young woman in the window seat say anything since the man came to sit between us. I purposely asked her if she was alright, remembering it was her first flight. She quietly indicated that she was okay, but it was more than enough to pique the interest of our “middle man”.
Mr. Friendly turned to her and point blank asked her why wouldn’t she be okay….well, that released the floodgates!!!
She mentioned something about flying for the first time, and seeing her dad for the first time, and off Middle Man goes with his own amazing story:
He had actually abandoned his pregnant girlfriend more than thirty years before, because he felt that she threatened his lifelong dream of joining the Army. He had already been recruited and accepted when his girlfriend tried to get in touch with him about the impending child. He refused to see her, knowing what she wanted to tell him, but not wanting to risk his upcoming enlistment. He didn’t talk to her again.
Fast forward, thirty-something years later in his life, and being a traveling salesman, he encounters a man whom he believes to be his son. He surreptitiously gathers information about this younger man, and relunctantly ends up talking to his ex-girlfriend of long ago, the mother of his son. At first, she is totally against him contacting his son, but over the course of a month or two, she relents because she admits to Middle Man that she is dying of cancer.
At this point, I’m almost overwhelmed by the personal revelations I’m hearing, not only from Middle Man, but from the young woman as well. I realize that this situation is what I had asked for, and that I am just a witness now to what is unfolding between the three of us.
Middle Man continues his story: he begins contact with his son, who is very leery of him at first. After a few meetings, they agree that Middle Man can come meet his son’s family–his wife and two young children. Over time, they all are beginning to fall in love with each other.
But Middle Man’s next words made me feel as if I’d been punched in the stomach. His son died a painful death a few weeks later from a spider bite he had gotten while hunting in the woods near his home! Middle Man was devastated.
And this big, honest, gregarious, total stranger sitting next to me was reduced to tears, as was I, the young woman, and several people sitting in rows around us who had listened in to his story.
But! he quickly recovered and turned to the young woman, and earnestly asked her to forgive her father for abandoning her, or at least to be lenient with him about it. He told her that she might never know the exact reasons why her father left her, but that she would be better off knowing that she could forgive and move on in her life, especially since no one is quaranteed another day in this world.
The brave young woman said she would think about it, and Middle Man left it at that. Almost immediately, the flight attendants were announcing our arrival to our destination, and no more was said other than polite chitchat.
Middle Man’s story had taken up the whole time of our entire flight, approximately an hour. It was absolutely mesmerizing to me, and I realized I was astounded by what had taken place beside me.
I’m sure you’re thinking this story has gone on long enough, but I’m not yet finished. Sorry!
After we left the plane, the young woman caught up with me, and asked me if I would mind walking with her to meet her father! I was so humbled and honored that she would ask me that, and I immediately said YES! But as we walked through the airport and got closer to her meeting point, she timidly asked me if I minded if she met him by herself. She decided it would be best if she did this on her own. I totally agreed with her, and we parted with a big hug, and a silent prayer on my part for her meeting to have a wonderful outcome.
I’ll never forget these two beautiful people and the connection that was made that afternoon between three total strangers. What a blessing for all of us.
If you ask the Universe if you can be of help, you better be prepared to get more than you bargained for! And a gift personally bestowed upon all involved.