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Lasting Fragments

I met W after over two decades at a coffee shop in the town where we had first met as young women. She was single at the time and lived in the apartment above mine. I was pregnant with J and on very unsteady ground in my marriage. I have yanked out large chunks of memory from that time to help me forget pain that was making me act in destructive ways. 

Years later, when I look back I can barely reconstruct a few hours of content about my life from a period spanning a decade. When I meet someone like W who recalls details I no longer remember, it is as if they are returning pieces of my life to me that were given up for lost, damaged or both. She shared some of her recollections and I was very grateful for that. 

Like W holds a few fragments of me, I hold some of others in who passed through my life. I am all but certain those memories I have of them are not the most significant ones for them - but in the context of our short acquaintance, they etched a mark on me. There was a young couple I remember from when I was about six years old. They were friends of my parents and came to visit with us for a few days. I remember feeling that these two had something between them that my parents did not. It was magnetic and drew me in. 

I was too young to understand, that is how a couple that is highly compatible in every way feels to the world - they have a calm, centering effect on those around them. The unit feels strong and one that has enough energy to nourish others. I recall telling my parents that I wanted to leave with them  - it had been a sobering moment for all the adults. 

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