The jury is still out on whether the stranger on the front row stared at me because he thought I was cute, or it was just lipstick on my teeth. What I do know is—he’s the stranger I fell in love with. I don’t know if I believe in love at first sight, but if I did, he would be proof of it. When he stood up to speak, I knew in an instant that my life had been altered forever.

The Golden Rule is drilled into us from the time we are verbal, but people don’t always want to be treated the way we do. Oftentimes they need something different from us and sometimes we fail to recognize that.

No one gets married with the expectation of getting divorced some day in the future. When you promise to love and cherish someone for the rest of your life, you don’t picture what it will be like to be alone again. And there’s no manual on how to put your life back together when “forever” is cut short.