How A Chance Meeting Can Change Your Life

Five years ago this weekend I met Eddie James totally by chance.

After being told by my older sister, Barb, that I WOULD volunteer at something called "Ride For Kids" I found myself standing in the parking lot of North Point Mall at 6 am on a Sunday morning with absolutely no idea of what I had volunteered for nor that my life was getting ready to change drastically.

I had already noticed Eddie at our training class a few nights before but discounted him as probably "married with three kids, a dog and a mini-van that he regularly drove to coach soccer practice". I'm usually pretty good a first impressions but I couldn't have been more wrong about that one. I was right about the other part of my first impression - this guy was truly funny and could command a room like few others I'd seen.

So as I stumbled across the dark parking lot that morning who should I see first? That funny man from the training class. Barb starts yelling across the lot at him, "Hey Mike!! Mike? Mike!!!" Finally he walked toward us with a puzzled look on his face. That's when Barb noticed his name tag said "Eddie James". All I noticed was his smile and beautiful eyes.

I had one of those moments that you may only have one or two times in your life. Everything stopped and I found that I couldn't talk. I just stood there staring at him like a total idiot. I believe they call it "love at first sight".

He smiled right at me and said, "How are you doing this morning?" He smiled through his eyes and then I noticed that he had the most amazing head of hair I'd ever seen on a man. I managed to stammer, "fine...".

He went to work getting us our clipboards and explaining how we were to get the riders to sign the release and put the wrist bands on them before they could come into the tent area. We were to stand out in the parking lot and get to them as they dismounted their motorcycles.

I had never been around motorcycles before and only knew a couple of people who rode. I was amazed as the bikes started to pull up. They were so interesting to look at and all of the people were so damn happy to be there.

I spent the morning getting signatures, greeting riders, asking about their bikes and scouring the parking lot to see where Eddie was. He was always easy to spot in a crowd. Whenever there was slow moment I would wonder over to the coffee and donut table and always chose a route that would take me past him. I'd smile, he'd smile and I'd get that loopy feeling down in my stomach.

It was time for the riders to leave to head up to Dahlonega, the end point for the ride. All of sudden Eddie and a few other people hop into.... wait for it... a mini-van and take off.

WTH?? Where was he going? I hadn't had a chance to properly flirt with him. Barb & I were done for the day. We weren't volunteering at the end-point.

As the riders started to leave the parking lot, I sprang into action. I found one of the Atlanta task force leaders whose husband worked with Barb and was the guy who got me into this in the first place.

"Nona, what do you know about Eddie?" (Nona is Paula Deen so just picture her and you've got this conversation down.)

"Honey, I don't know anything about him. He just started working at the foundation and the first time I saw him was at training." Then she whispers to me, "Do you want me to find out if he's available?"

"Yes!!"

"I'll find out in Dahlonega and let you know, honey. Don't worry, Nona's on it."

I went home and immediately Googled him. Unfortunately, there are a whole bunch of Eddie James' in the world. Had I known to add the word "motorcycle" to my search I would have hit the mother-lode of information but that never occurred to me. Silly girl.

The next day I received an email from Nona's husband, Jim. Eddie was single, available and wanted to hear from me! OMG.

I had to leave for the airport to fly to SoCal so I quickly wrote a simple message and told him to respond or call. I turned off my laptop and headed for the airport.

When I landed in Santa Ana and turned on my Blackberry I had a very funny email from him AND a voicemail. I immediately noticed that he had a "radio voice".

I called him once I arrived at our corporate apartment. We talked for over an hour.

And that is how it all began.

Within a month we were inseparable. I knew I was in love. He knew he was in love but it would be another month or so before either one of us had the nerve to say it out loud. We both brought some baggage into the relationship and the first year had a few moments when I wasn't sure we'd be able to forget about our respective pasts and only look to a new future.

Once we agreed that we would focus on "us" and not "them" we'd be ok. And we were. It all fell perfectly into place.

I was at an extremely low point in my life when I met Eddie. He was going through some major changes too. It occurred to me just last week that Eddie brought "Lisa" back to me. I had lost sight of her for a while. With Eddie's help, she found her way back.

Our time together was short but filled 100% by adventure, fun, love, contentment and total dedication to each other.

Nothing will ever take away what we had. Not even death.