Lisa and I met when I was 15 years old and we fell in love. That summer my family and I took a vacation to Jamaica. It was the first time that we (Lisa and I) were apart, and since we were in Jamaica for a couple of weeks, Lisa wrote me a letter. And somehow I got the letter that was mailed all the way from Columbia, South Carolina to Kingston, Jamaica.
I want to share with you an excerpt from this letter. Its still hot. She sprayed it with Charlie cologne. I can only read the highlighted part. I cant read the rest.
Dear Edwin B., (B stands for Barry.) I think about you all of the time and thats the truth. All I can do is think about the time when Ill be with you again. I hope that will be soon, because it seems like a month until I last saw you. Love always and forever, Lisa.
While in Jamaica we were staying at a friend of my familys house, a beautiful estate, and I would walk around that estate and read the letter about every other hour. I just couldnt get enough of the letter. And my parents would ask me, Hey, Ed, what did Lisa say in her letter? Why dont you read her letter to us?
I said, Are you crazy? Im not going to do that. Its a love letter, Mom; a love letter, Dad. You wouldnt understand it, you know?
I grew up in the country. And for a long while we lived on a dirt road. Across from the dirt road was a bunch of woods. There was a path through the woods that led to a lake. And one evening my father took my brother and me down the path to the shore of the lake to watch the sunset.
As the sun was melting onto the horizon line, for some reason a bunch of water moccasins were everywhere and my brother and I were really scared. And we began to kind of yell and Whoop, and Whoo, wow! and all this.
So my father said these words. Ill never forget these words. He said, Son, jump on my back. Okay, Son, come on. Jump on my back. Ill carry you out.
So Ben and
Ed Young Pastor jumped on our fathers back. We held him tight. I watched him turn the flashlight on that he had brought down with him, and I watched him find the path which led through the woods to our home.
