During my last month of living in London, I was having a coffee at a local café in my neighborhood when I struck up a conversation with Sam who was a Jordanian doctor also living in London. We connected immediately and had a whirlwind romance until I had to leave London and go back to the United States. We continued dating long distance and he was a special angel to me when my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. Since it was his medical speciality, he was able to help me every step of the way during this difficult journey and provided me with all the support I needed after my grandmother passed away.

 

Some months later, I went back to visit him in London. However, he broke my heart during that visit as he decided to end our relationship. He was moving back to Jordan and thought it would be too difficult to continue our long distance relationship and deal with the cross-cultural challenges. We lost touch after that and I eventually moved to Japan; however, I never forgot about Sam. Coincidentally one night in Osaka I even met someone who knew his father.

 

However, our story didn’t end there. While at church in Osaka one Sunday, I met a young Japanese woman who was tried to decide whether or not to take a certain job, using her English, in Tokyo and encouraged her to do so. She ended up accepting the job and some months later, while I was on a visit back to the US, I got one of the most shocking emails of my life. She told me that someone named Sam had called her organization and was trying to locate me! Coincidentally it was my friend who’d answered his call. Apparently, after he moved to Jordan he realized what a mistake he’d made and how much he still loved me. He’d also lost his address book with all my contact details and had no way to get a hold of me, but knew I was living in Japan. Since this was before the days of the Internet, he started making calls to Japan to try to find me again. My friend didn’t tell him that she knew me but took down his contact details and sent them to me. She said, “I had the strangest call today, there was a guy named Sam looking for you! Do you know him?” Of course, you can only imagine my shock! What were they chances that my friend would be the one to answer that phone call and pass on his details to me?

 

I did call Sam and, of course, he was surprised! We decided to meet up and he’d made plans to come visit me in Japan but due to unfortunate circumstances, it didn’t work out. Then we decided to reunite in Egypt—I was sailing on a ship that would be docking there. Excited he would be greeting the ship, I raced off only to find out he wasn’t there. I waited for him for hours and I later find out that he was having surgery and had no way of getting a hold of me. I didn’t understand why fate had brought us together if we weren’t destined to meet just yet. Months passed and I eventually went back to the US. We tried to meet one more time, on a third continent—this time back in the UK. We were able to reunite for only a few short days until he got a call from home… His father was gravely ill so he had to fly back to Jordan. His dad passed away a few days later and I was able to support him—just as he had supported me after my grandma’s passing.

 

There is a saying that, “people are brought into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.” Even though Sam and I never had a lifetime together, I truly believe he was brought into my life for a reason. I am forever grateful that we had the chance to support each other through very difficult seasons of losing loved ones in our life!