Front porch

As a young man I used to day dream about many things, just fanciful thoughts of how my life would be as I grew older. One day while staring out a window I had the most surreal, unique dream I have ever had. Though I was awake, every moment was so vivid and real, I truly believed as if I was really there.

It was early morning; the spring air was cold and crisp, a thin layer of dew covered the ground waiting for the sun to melt it off. The bright colors of the spring season were beginning to bloom, as if Mother Nature was ready to show off after a long winters nap. Surrounding the yard stood a freshly painted white picket fence with roses climbing and looping around it, the blossoms beginning to peek out, reaching up to seek the sun's warmth, providing the heady fragrance of spring. Butterflies and bumble bees danced from one flower to the next as the garden’s personal caretakers.

An older man somewhere in my 70’s, my hair had grown grayer, my skin now withered and worn. My eyes still bright from the gleam of life still left in me. A hot cup of coffee sat by my side on the round glass covered table and the morning’s newspaper laid in my lap. I leaned back in my favorite white rocker and relaxed for another perfect morning to admire from the front porch of my home.

The children walked past and waved to me on their way to school. Many of the parents did so as well. I smiled as I gestured back at them. Watching the parade of children and their families go by reminded me of my childhood when I walked to school.

A group of boys came along laughing and teasing each other as they approached my yard. I saw the whispers and the mischievous gleams on their faces as they looked over at me as if they were about to do something they knew they shouldn’t. All at once they started running as they dragged their sticks along my newly painted fence. I stood up and started yelling at them to stop and be on their way, all the while smiling and holding back a chuckle.

To my surprise I heard a woman’s voice echo from inside the house to leave the children alone and to stop fussing. In my dream I never saw who called, but her voice was soft and loving with a sweetness that I had cherished for so many years. I spent years listening carefully to everyone I met to see if they were the one that spoke to me in that dream.

The first time I heard your voice I knew it was you that had spoken to me in my dream. Your voice was as soft and caring as I remembered it to be, reassuring of the love that we shared through all the years of our life. Growing old together was to be our fate as we lived out the golden years of our life sitting on that front porch together. Rocking and laughing, but most of all, loving.