It was not a coincidence that Lorna and I ended up in Seattle in the fall of 1972. It was not a coincidence that we met and married quickly.

When Lorna and I returned to Seattle from Salt Lake City after getting married, Lorna’s sister Penny told her that Tom had called while we were in Salt Lake. Lorna told me twenty-five years later about the phone call and that her initial reaction was, “I’ve made a mistake.”

If we hadn’t met and married in that three-month window of time, we probably never would have married. Had she received that call before we were married, I’m sure Tom would have told her he was willing to take the discussions and join the Church. She would have broken it off with me and married Tom.

Tom called about four years later. We had two little boys at the time. I answered the phone, it was a man’s voice, he asked to talk with Lorna. I knew it was Tom.

After hanging up, Lorna told me it was Tom. I didn’t have to ask. He wanted to know how she was doing, how things were going. He was letting her know he was there if…

Lorna had told me about Tom. How they met, the magic she felt, his experience with the missionaries, his desire to have her move with him to Arizona. Her decision to break up with him.

You can’t make magic happen. It just happens. It never goes away, it fades with time, but the memory of that magic, that person, is always there.

Fortunately, I understood a little bit about magic. My magic was Kayleen, also from the summer of 1972.

Looking back forty years, I believe that Tom and Kayleen were some of the angels that would play their part in our lives.