<\/p>\n
My forty-seventh birthday felt empty. I set the table for three, though my daughter Karen\u2019s seat had been empty for two years \u2014 no calls, no letters, no goodbye.<\/p>\n
That night, while tidying, I found a slightly yellowed birthday card in a drawer. My name on the front, Karen\u2019s familiar handwriting inside: \u201cMom, I miss you. Please come find me. I\u2019m in Canada.\u201d<\/em> My heart froze \u2014 the card had been sent two years ago, intercepted by my ex-husband, Nigel.<\/p>\n With Brad\u2019s quiet blessing, I packed a bag and flew to Canada. Standing at her door, I worried she might not want to see me.<\/p>\n But when Karen opened the door, she ran into my arms, sobbing, \u201cI thought you didn\u2019t want me anymore.\u201d Hours later, we sat talking, catching up on lost years. That small card had changed everything. Love hadn\u2019t vanished \u2014 it had just been lost in the mail.<\/p>\n When I returned home, I didn\u2019t set the table for three. Karen and I had found our way back to each other. That reunion \u2014 after all the silence \u2014 was the greatest birthday gift I could ever receive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My forty-seventh birthday felt empty. I set the table for three, though my daughter Karen\u2019s seat had been empty for two years \u2014 no calls, no letters, no goodbye. That night, while tidying, I found a slightly yellowed birthday card in a drawer. My name on the front, Karen\u2019s familiar handwriting inside: \u201cMom, I …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8865,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8863\/revisions\/8865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifevibesever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cI never stopped loving you,\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n