A Chance, Fated Meeting Completely Changed My Life [VIDEO]
I was looking for a good news story to end the morning show with yesterday and couldn't help but stop at this one. A little girl wanted a "Paw Paw," so she adopted one. Reminds me of college when I pretty much did the same thing.
In the original story, three-year-old Addalyn was obsessed with the local nursing home and wanted a "Paw Paw" of her own so her mother went on Facebook and asked if anyone was interested. Now Addalyn has a new Paw Paw in 93-year-old James Luna.
As I grew up, I've always had a warm place in my heart for the elderly. I assume it's because I loved my grandmother so much, but in high school, I started volunteering at a local woman's nursing home and it grew from there. I never really knew my grandfathers as they both passed away before I really could. When I went to college in NYC, I wanted to further my volunteering by finding another organization which helped the elderly. That's where I met Frank.
Frank lived alone near the NYU campus, most of his family lived in New Jersey and he had lost his sister a year or so before so he wanted someone to spend time with. As fate would have it, Frank and I were matched up and my experience with him completely changed my life. I would see him once every two weeks and we'd go out for coffee, maybe a walk to pick up a few things, and we would talk about whatever. We may have had 60 years between us but for those two years, we were very close friends.
I left to study abroad in Madrid for a semester in 2009 and since I didn't have a phone, every few weeks I would send letters back to America, pages detailing everything I was doing and pictures of some of my favorite things. When I finally got back into the states, I had found out that he had passed away two weeks prior. I was crushed.
Everything that happened with Frank seemed fated from our first meeting to the unbelievable way I found the last card he ever wrote to me. I'm forever grateful that something, somehow crossed our paths and even though he's not physically here anymore, I know he's looking out for me. Every time I see Baci chocolate, it makes me think of him. I hope this little girl has a similar situation because sure, I miss him but I wouldn't give up those memories for anything.