What's the most ironic thing that has happened to you? ( Archived) (17)

In october of 1997, I began writing a poem. I entitled the poem; "Christmas is Forgiving', about how forgiveness is the greatest gift we can gift. I wrote it as sort of a prayer to my Lord. I wrote and rewrote,edited and rewrote some more for seven laborious years before completing it to my satisfaction. By summer of 2004, it was finished.

The day after Christmas 2004, I received a call from my mom who had heard from some unexpected grapevine, that my father...who I have never met, nor had any contact with throughout my entire life...had had a heart attack and was taken to a hospital in the city. The hospital where he was taken was just a five minute walk from my apartment.

Suddenly, I felt an overwhelming obligation to go and visit him. I mulled over the idea of visiting him and made the decision to do so later on that day. I was nervous about seeing him for the first time. Many questions were going through my mind; "would he know who I am? Will I give him another heart attack? God forbid!

Our visit was tense at first, but then we both began to relax and I think I made his day! He talk about his mother, who I was named after but never met. Our visit lasted an hour then I left. I returned the next day and brought my daughter with me.

We kept in touch after that and I spent one year in his home town so as to get to know him better. I let go of all my anger toward him and it was the most liberating experience in my life.

The amazing thing is this;

The town where my father lives has its own hospital equipped with all the latest medical technologies, and yet my father was air-lifted from his home town to a hospital 80 miles away and only a five minute walk from my residence! Not only was I given the opportunity to forgive my father, but I was given the chance to do it in person, and it occurred right at Christmas! Any other way would have been impossible.