Paladin
Contributor
I had a pleasant surprise today. An old friend, Debbie, stopped by to see me. I have not seen her in over thirty years. Debbie's father was Harold, the man who first taught me how to dive using SCUBA. Shortly after Harold died, Debbie was married and moved of state. For a while we kept in contact by phone and cards at birthdays and Christmas, but eventually lost touch. Lately, since I got back into diving, I have been thinking about Harold, and Debbie, a lot. Imagine my surprise to find her on my doorstep, unannounced, this morning. She was on her way to Florida on business and decided to drive the few miles out of her way to see me.
We caught up on the events of the lost years and and ended up sharing stories about Harold. Debbie had never shared her father's love of diving and had not even learned to swim. When it was time for her to leave, I walked her out to her car. She reached inside and handed me an old cigar box and told me she had found it in a bunch of stuff that had belonged to Harold. She said she thought he would want me to have it.
Inside were some miscellaneous regulator parts, a pair of wagon wheels, a half dozen mouthpiece check valves and three US Divers J valves in pristine condition. I didn't know what to say. She kissed me on the cheek and got into her car. I am not ashamed to say that my eyes were rather moist as I watched her drive away.
We caught up on the events of the lost years and and ended up sharing stories about Harold. Debbie had never shared her father's love of diving and had not even learned to swim. When it was time for her to leave, I walked her out to her car. She reached inside and handed me an old cigar box and told me she had found it in a bunch of stuff that had belonged to Harold. She said she thought he would want me to have it.
Inside were some miscellaneous regulator parts, a pair of wagon wheels, a half dozen mouthpiece check valves and three US Divers J valves in pristine condition. I didn't know what to say. She kissed me on the cheek and got into her car. I am not ashamed to say that my eyes were rather moist as I watched her drive away.
