--MYSTERIOUS WAYS~~
---MORE THAN COINCIDENCE~~
---I SLOWLY GOT READY in front of my bedroom mirror, smoothing my hair and putting in my earrings. I had plans to meet friends for dinner. Truth was, I didn't feel up to going out.I didn't feel up to much of anything, and I hadn't since my husband, Clancy, passed away three months earlier. It felt as if all the joy had gone out of life.
Clancy and I had known each other our whole lives. In our later years, we found ourselves falling in love. He was my soulmate, and he knew just how to make me laugh.
One day, two years into our marriage, I walked into our bedroom to see something peering down at me from the chandelier.
"Clancy, what earth is 'that'?" I asked. "I believe it's a love bug," Clancy said, trying--and failing--to hide a grin. I laughed and took the object down from its perch. It was a small rubber tub toy, a bright red and yellow crab with bulging eyes and a silly smile. Clancy had meant to give it to one of our great-grandkids, but he liked it so much he ended up keeping it. That was Clancy for you.
All that week, I found the crab in surprising places. My sweater drawer, the kitchen sink, even taped to the inside of the toilet lid so that when I lifted it, the crab was there smiling at me.
'I can play this game too,' I thought.
After that, we took turns hiding the crab. It showed up tucked between the couch cushions, in the pocket of the coat Clancy wore to church, in our suitcase on trips abroad,, back and for for 10 years. A lighthearted little way to say, "I love you." Then one day, it went missing. We searched every room in the house, looked in every corner and underneath all the furniture and beds. Alas, our love bug was gone.
It was around this time that Clancy got sick. He underwent surgery for color cancer and died from complications. He was 83.
I'd barely been able to get out of bed since.
'Lord, how am I going to get through this dinner?'I wondered, loooking at my wan reflection in the mirror. Just then, one of my earrings slipped from my hands and tumbled to the floor, rolling under the bed. I knelt down, lifted the bed skirt and there it was, staring right back at me.
A bright red and yellow crab, with bulging eyes and a goofy grin. Our love bug. I smiled. Clancy always did know how to make me laugh. ~~ 
----Ann Stoner Bostian
Spencer, North Carolina
--GUIDEPOSTS~~
