This is my story about three friends linked in a way that beats all odds.
R. has been my friend since I was 11 and she was 13. We met at Fort Eustis, Virginia, while both our fathers were doing their two-week yearly reserve officer duties. These Virginia trips constituted vacations for my mother and me. We and R. and her mother stayed in the Officers’ Guest House, swam together in the Fort Eustice pool, and dined at the Officers’ Club. Our mothers became friends for years following, and we would visit each other, either at her home in Buffalo or ours in Rochester.
R’s and my friendship continued through our young adulthood years and beyond our parents’ deaths. Periodically, R. pops up in my life and we pick up where we left off. It’s like that with close friends. When she discovered I’d written a novel, friend that she is, found and purchased a used copy.
She recently turned up again and spent two days with me here in Tennessee, and I got to know her adult daughter too. She brought her copy of The Divine Meddler for me to sign.
D. is my other friend who recently passed away. She was an amazing woman and fellow author. I had given D. an autographed copy of my novel, The Divine Meddler, years ago.
What are the chances?
“This is a signed copy. I’m curious who owned it,” R. said as she handed it to me to sign. I recognized what I had written to my recently deceased friend, D. This wasn’t a copy I’d signed to a stranger. This was personal.
How can it be that, of all the signed copies out there, one of my friends would purchase a copy owned by another friend?
Choosing my Title
I didn’t title my novel The Divine Meddler because I thought it was clever. My novel is a story of redemption and how God meddles lovingly in our lives to bring us closer to Him. His creativity, and sometimes humor, amazes me.
You can’t tell me this was a coincidence. This was all too personal as He connected such opposites in personality through one book. Nor do I think this was part of a cosmic plan (although with God, you never know). Rather, it feels like a “God wink”—God’s way of showing He’s paying attention to me and my friends. Just a friendly, divine “hello.”
I gave up believing in coincidences long ago. Rather, you could call this a “God-incident,” reminding me of His constant love, care, and yes, His unique meddling.
