Resurfacing pasts

The other day I was rummaging through my email and to my surprise I saw a familiar name. Whoa, DS. I haven't heard from this dude is ...years. It has been nearly 5 years since we last spoke. We were good friends there was always something there but I would never move forward with a relationship with him because, well. He had a past with a friend of mine. I'm not saying that it was an option, ever. But we meshed well and it made sense, but it never happened. We kept it clean cut. But, we were close.

He moved around a lot. From Houston, to Philly, to Oklahoma, to Texas..and back around again. He also always had a girlfriend, a different one. It was like the dude couldn't be alone. I don't blame him. He came from a broken home, he was hanging with the wrong crowds, getting into this and that, and to top it all off...he was struggling financially. Taking on odd jobs and at one point he called me to catch up and I found out that he was making some money being a care taker for a storage unit, he lived in one of the units. It had plumbing, no air conditioning or a stove. At that point, he was just happy to have a roof over his head. He was couch surfing by this time. That was the last that I heard from him. I don't even remember how we lost touch.

Through email we ended up exchanging phone numbers and got to catch up today. I said to him that he just disappeared. I didn't know if he was in jail or dead. Years back I did look for him. I knew he would never be linked to any type of social media though. That just wasn't him. But I tried, I was worried about him. We've known each other for nearly 15 years now. I always counted on him to resurface and just find me like he always did. Like clock work. It was nice to hear from him. We talked about how different our lives were and still are but still managed to keep a close relationship. He then revealed to me that in his absence he was badly off into drugs and is recently "clean". He is now married with children, too! He divulged to me that when he was badly into drugs that it almost tore his marriage apart but his wife fought for their relationship. Now, they are happier than ever. I then told him "I'm happy for you, you have a strong woman." and he said "Yeah, you know it takes a really strong woman to put up with me. & She would like me to tell you that she said Thank you." *Smiles! He even enrolled back into school and is trying to make something of himself. He said to me "I don't know why I never thought about doing it before. I want to do it all now." It made me happy to hear this. I always worried about him, always. He always had a rough life, ever since I've known him. Now here we are, years later and he is where he needs to be. Bettering his life for his wife and children, and most of all, himself. I am so happy to hear from him. It may have made my year.

Before ending our conversation he said to me "I don't even care about whatever reason it was that lead to us losing contact. I am just glad to have one of the most important women in my life again. Even if we were never lovers or anything, you are an important woman in my life. I never forgot you." I am honored, & I wish him nothing but the best, more than the best.