It was a quiet day in June when I first met Tico. I was busy jumping on my little trampoline and my uncle was washing up from supper (he had been visiting me in London and likes to keep busy, so I didn't complain). I got a knock on my back door and opened it to see my friend, Tanya with the little girl she looks after and a cute guy with her. I invited them in and we chatted a little. I was very poor in my Portuguese and neither of them were fluent in English, so needless to say, we did lots of body language and laughed a lot! They stayed for a few hours and we ended up playing the piano and singing and chatting and laughing the night away. I was thrilled at meeting this new friend and wanted to keep in contact. But days turned into months and I didn't see him again (Later my uncle told me he had stopped by the house the next day to see me when I was at work). But in September, he showed up again...and our friendship just picked up where it had stopped off. My Portuguese had improved due to the fact that a Brazilian church started renting our church for their services. I attended sometimes and refused translation as I wanted to force myself to learn.
One of the most memoriable evenings was when Tico decided to teach me to dance. We weren't attracted to each other or anything at that stage and it was just a lot of fun. I have not been blessed with the spiritual gift of rhythm, so it was challenging, but it was so much fun. We ended up chatting about God and about Tico's dreams and my dreams for the future and before we realised, Tanya was curled up asleep on the sofa and it was 5am! The next evening was my birthday party. Friends from my new Brazilian church had decided to have a party for me at my home. It was great...and who should appear half way through, but my new friend...TICO!
He hit it off with my friends because they all spoke the same language...and, well, he is just a great guy! A few days later, I went to America to spend time with my terminally ill mom. I stayed in the USA for 2 1/2 months until my mom passed into the next world. It was a hard time for our family but one HUGE thing that kept me going was my DAILY visits with Tico via webcam, telephone and email. Our friendship blossomed and my mom was the first to say...YOU are in love with this guy! I denied it at first cuz I was afraid for it to be true. When we finally had 'the talk' and he asked me to be his girlfriend when I came back to London, I was 'over the moon'. It was scary cuz I had been out of a relationship for quite a few years. But it was exciting, too. The night before my mom passed away, I went into her room just bubbling over with all this excitement. She was pretty much un-responsive due to massive doses of pain-killers and the disease. But I imagine she heard me telling Darla and Dad all about my plans to date Tico when I returned to London. During the night she passed into the happy world of Heaven where she no longer needs to suffer or take medicine to ease her pain. When I phoned Tico to tell him, he told me about a dream he had that very night....he saw my mom walk into the room carrying two heavy bags. She didn't say a word, but looked at him and looked and me and smiled and dropped the bags and left. He interpreted that to mean that she was satisfied that she could now go and leave me in his capable hands, so she let go of this world and went into the next. I found it a beautiful scenario and believe she did feel that I would be cared for in the love of this man. SHE WAS RIGHT!!
1 comment:
I was really touched by this story. My mother passed away Feb 2007. The last time we were able to converse was two days before she passed away. I knew I had to say something important because I could feel her leaving us. I told her not to worry about me because I had Gary. She winked and said, "You've got a good man." It meant everything to me to know she felt confident that I was in good hands. So, I understand how you feel about Tico's dream. I also want to pass on my condolences.
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