Love Always, Liv

When I was 36 years old, I coached my son's T-ball team. All the kids were 8 years old. I had a lot of fun doing it. There was this one girl on the team. Olivia was only 8 but she was gorgeous. I always felt a profound sadness coming from her. I come to find out her parents had divorced. I found myself dreaming about her. I would have to get these thoughts of love and sex out of my head. She was a little girl but I felt like she was older. When we would talk I felt like we had a connection. I gave her words of encouragement and told her about how I grew up with divorced parents. I felt my words seem to help her cope. I never made any advances towards her. I treated her like all the other kids but whenever I saw her or talked to her, I felt like my heart would burst. After the season I had a pool party at my house and all the kids were invited. The only one that didn't was Olivia. Her dad was moving away and took her with him. I thought about her over the years and always wondered where she was and how she was doing.
Fast-forward 16 years later and I just lost my wife to COVID recently. I was just looking at her legacy page at all the condolences people had wrote. I then came upon this one. It read. "I remember Coach John's wife as a very loving, caring and sharing woman. She shared Coach John with all of us. She knew what a wonderful man he was and she wanted to share him with the community and I thank her for that. If it wasn't for him and his words of encouragement, I don't know where I would be today. I am indebted to them both. May she rest in peace. Sincerely, Olivia"

I couldn't believe it! There she was. She wrote something nice and something nice about me. She's 24 now and she still remembers our time together.

The other day I got a message on Instagram. It was from Olivia! She again gave condolences and said she had a g*ft for me. I messaged her back and we exchanged pleasantries. She said she just moved back to town and would like to stop by and give me the present. I gave her my address and she said she will come over on the weekend.

She came by when I was running an errand. She left the g*ft on the porch. It was a framed picture from one of our last games. It was a candid shot of my wife giving out cupcakes after the game. There was my son, me and Olivia leaning on me as she ate her cupcake. There was a note that said "I always loved being close to you! I always felt like we had a connection. I always loved this picture! I have a copy of it printed on canvas hanging on my wall. Thank you for everything! Love always, Liv