BY VICKI LOVERN

(Editor’s Note: This week’s Kyle’s Korner is a guest column written by his wife Vicki Lovern.)

I met Kyle when my daughter, Tina, was a senior in high school, or I should say, we met again. We had known each other since childhood and had grown up in the same small town of Nolan with very similar values and beliefs. Kyle had led as sheltered a life as I had. My mom, who really was a wonderful mom, nevertheless sheltered me so completely that when I was 16, I bit a date’s tongue when he tried to French kiss me. In my defense, I did warn him. But, safe to say, that little incident did nothing to enhance my popularity.

Kyle and I have joked that had we dated as teenagers there would have been no need to worry about tongue biting because there would have been no tongue to be bitten. He didn’t know any more about French kissing than I did.

We both grew up riding our bikes or walking everywhere we went. We both knew what it was like to go to sleep gazing up at the stars under an open screened window in the summer to get some cool night air. We both had phone “party lines” and loved drinking cold milk right from the glass bottles delivered by the milkman directly to our front doors. Neither of us had wealthy families and neither of us cared. However, we were both rich in family and love and these things we cared very much about.

We both watched Hee-Haw on Saturday nights and Gunsmoke on Mondays. And he is the only person to this day who remembers the cartoon “Precious Pup.” We were both amazed that we each remembered this long-forgotten classic – well, classic to us at any rate. And we eventually had our own “precious pup” in Petey.

Growing up, Kyle and I both had active imaginations and loved reading and writing at an early age. We spent an inordinate amount of time searching the night sky for constellations, shooting stars and the occasional UFO. We both bought a hot dog, a bag of Snyder’s and a pop for a quarter at Fannin’s Restaurant and played the pinball machine and the jukebox at Curry’s.

Granted, we grew up in a more innocent time, but even at that, we were both late bloomers. We valued our family and friends, believed in working hard for what you wanted, and knew beyond a doubt that God is real and Jesus died on the cross and rose again to save our souls.

We also both believe in destiny and remember an incident when I was 16 and he was 13—one that we never forgot. It really was such an ordinary moment (and moment was truly all it was) that neither of us had any reason whatsoever to recall it – especially after some 20 years. But recall it we did – and quite vividly at that. It happened at Nolan, of course.

He was riding his bike south towards Fannin’s restaurant. Donna Reed and I were walking north towards the school when we met directly on the railroad bridge tracks. He stopped briefly, taking one foot off the pedal, resting it on the tracks and smiled at me. It was a shy smile but filled with so much genuine sweetness and innocence and just plain goodness. He smiled with his whole essence and the clearest, baby blue eyes and deepest dimples that I had ever seen. I smiled back at him and said, “Hello.”

The entire exchange could not have lasted more than a moment, which makes it all the more remarkable that that moment would be forever etched in both of our minds and eventually become a primary connecting point in building our relationship all these years later. We have, of course, discussed why that seemingly insignificant encounter made such an impression on us both and have mutually agreed that the only explanation is that it was a sign from above. In that brief moment, we saw our future soulmate in each other’s eyes. And even though I knew he was too young for me then. I knew also that he wouldn’t always be.

Fast forward 23 years later, several failed relationships between us, many bad decisions and much growing up, and we meet again in, of all places, Food City Grocery. It was the day After Valentine’s Day, Monday, Feb. 15, 1993. And my oh my, he certainly wasn’t too young for me now. He grew up, and he grew up good. I ran into him, almost literally, in the school supplies aisle where I was getting Tina some notebooks for a class.

He had “filled out” quite nicely since our childhood meeting on the railroad tracks. His once boyish frame had transformed into a broad-shouldered, extremely handsome man with long hair and an even longer trenchcoat. He looked like he belonged on the cover of a romance novel. He really was that good-looking. But he smiled at me with that same sweet, innocent smile that I remembered from all those years ago.

This time around, we said much more than hello and talked for quite a while, much longer than our first encounter, and discovered how much we still had in common. He told me he worked at the Williamson Daily News and had written several articles that had been published in various magazines. Well, of course, he had me at “writer.” He asked if he could call me and I told him to call Friday. He called as soon as I got home that night. The phone rang as I was putting away the groceries, having just discovered that I had purchased TEN notebooks for Tina when she only needed three.

We talked for at least four hours that night until my baby girl informed me that she too would like to use the phone. We talked every night after that too, and really, have been talking ever since. One of the first things we discussed was that fateful encounter on the tracks. He also told me that first night that he had already been to Food City earlier that day but something told him that he needed to go back. He said he didn’t need anything else and had no idea why the feeling was so persistent to go back to the grocery store on a dreary, rainy February evening until he saw me.

Roll your eyes if you must, but I definitely believe in ESP. And this I can say for sure: listen to your gut – your instincts; they really never lie.

Kyle knew when he saw me at the store that evening that he was meant to say more than hello this time around. And I knew when I saw him all those years later that he was just the right age for me to listen. We both knew, almost immediately, that our chance encounter at the grocery store was not really chance at all. It was meant to be as surely as that moment on the railroad tracks was meant to leave a lasting impression.

So my best relationship advice this Valentine’s Day: If someone smiles at you with their heart, smile back at them.