Forty-one years after Jeffrey asked me never to contact him again, I heard him say my name.<\/p>\n
\u201cRuthie.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was sixty years old when his son, Peter, called me.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father wants to see you. He doesn\u2019t have much time left.\u201d<\/p>\n
I hadn\u2019t seen Jeffrey since 1986.<\/p>\n
We had been best friends since seventeen. At nineteen, after a terrible night of dating, we made a promise beneath our old high-school bleachers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re both still single at sixty, we stop being idiots and find each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
We sealed it with our pinkies.<\/p>\n
Then Jeffrey left for college.<\/p>\n
At first, we wrote constantly. But eventually the letters became fewer. He met Margaret, fell in love, and eventually told me they were getting married.<\/p>\n
His final letter asked me never to contact him again.<\/p>\n
I respected his decision.<\/p>\n
I never married.<\/p>\n
For years, I told people I simply hadn\u2019t met the right man.<\/p>\n
The truth was, I had met him at seventeen.<\/p>\n
Then, on my sixtieth birthday, Jeffrey called.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in love with you when we made that promise,\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\n
I could barely breathe.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I had already bought the ring.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat ring?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one I planned to give you before I left for college.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why didn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice broke.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019ve spent forty years wishing I could explain.\u201d<\/p>\n
He asked me to come to the hospital.<\/p>\n
When I arrived, I saw a wooden box beside his bed.<\/p>\n
I immediately recognized it.<\/p>\n
It had belonged to my father.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy do you have this?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOpen it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inside were old letters and a small ring box.<\/p>\n
The ring was still there.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey explained that before leaving for college, he had shown my father the ring and asked for his blessing.<\/p>\n
My father had secretly told him to walk away.<\/p>\n
He believed I would give up my future to follow Jeffrey.<\/p>\n
Years later, my father regretted what he had done and gave Jeffrey the box\u2014but by then Jeffrey was married and believed it was too late.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never asked me what I wanted,\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d Jeffrey said.<\/p>\n
We had lost forty-one years because other people\u2014and we ourselves\u2014kept deciding what was best.<\/p>\n
Then I looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sixty.\u201d<\/p>\n
He smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
I wrapped my pinky around his.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re both single at sixty\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stop being idiots and find each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tears filled his eyes.<\/p>\n
Two days later, Jeffrey came to my house.<\/p>\n
He finally opened the ring box.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould nineteen-year-old Ruth have said yes?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd sixty-year-old Ruth?\u201d<\/p>\n
I smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe doesn\u2019t need another forty years to know the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forty-one years after he bought the ring, Jeffrey finally slipped it onto my finger.<\/p>\n
For most of my life, I thought our story ended in 1986.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
We had simply stopped writing it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Forty-one years after Jeffrey asked me never to contact him again, I heard him say my name. \u201cRuthie.\u201d I was sixty years old when his son, Peter, called me. \u201cMy father wants to see you. He doesn\u2019t have much time left.\u201d I hadn\u2019t seen Jeffrey since 1986. We had been best friends since seventeen. At…<\/p>\n