Ralph's Place (Part Three)

Start from the beginning by clicking here for part one.

Over a year had come and gone, and the old barn had been forgotten. The pictures that she had taken that day were tucked inside an album with many others. Just another reminder of the long days and winding roads, and hours and miles spent thinking of her future. It was just another place that she had been. No where special. Tucked back in the country on a dusty country road .... somewhere that she would never see again.


Several weeks had gone by since she had met the man at the gas station, and she knew that he would always be in her life. It was love, and they both knew it.

She sat at his house one Sunday afternoon and had brought him pictures of her kids to see. As she flipped the pages of the album, she showed him pictures of her life. He turned a page and ask her where the picture was taken of the semi with logs on it .... and she told the story of that day.

The day she decided that her marriage was over. Twenty-three long years washed down the drain. She told him about the old barn that was abandoned deep in the country, down a curvy narrow road. She told him how each mile suffocated her, and how she rode with him day after day, so she would know in her mind that he would stay faithful if she was there. She told him how she had laid in the grass that sunny day, and made a decision to leave.

He ask again .... "where was the picture taken?" She didn't know. Only deep in the country, about forty-five minutes from the Kentucky border. A long way from here.

He looked at her and said, "that's my grain bin in that picture." She assured him that he was wrong. It couldn't be. It was a long way from here, no where close. He was wrong, and it was a blurry picture. There had to be many grain bins just like that .... he was wrong. Simply wrong.

Not being an argumentative man, he took her hand and said, "I want to show you something. Let's go." She quietly followed him out the door to his truck.

The road didn't look familiar, and she didn't know where she was going. She didn't know what he was going to show her, but was willing to go anywhere with him.

As he made the final turn, .... on the left, an old barn came into sight. He pulled up the driveway, turned off his truck and turned to her. He pointed and said, "That's my grain bin. I own this farm. We're only a couple miles from my house." He held up the picture in his hand and said to her, "A year ago, or more, you were here. You are the one that hung those flowers on that tree." I always wondered who was here .... and he knew, it was destiny.

She was speechless. She turned to look behind her, and the twigs that she had used to wind the flowers in that she had braided, still hung from the nail on the tree. It had been a year, but the sticks were still there, hanging where she'd placed them. The old car sat in the same place, and the apple trees were blooming in the late spring. The barn loomed in the distance and she heard the squeak of the rusty hinge in the silence as he stared at her. She couldn't talk, but tears streamed down her face ..... and she knew, it was destiny.


Ralph's Place ..... just a old barn that is falling down back along a curvy country road that really takes you no where. No where special, no where at all.

Ralph's Place .... with a beat up old rusty Chevelle, just sitting there with sharp briar's growing in, and around it. With no windows and the cruel weather, it's just sitting there growing older by the minute. No seats to sit in, and no one to love this old car. It's day of beauty was over.

Ralph's Place .... just a left over old home place that is neglected and unkempt these days. Nothing there but a grain bin and a barn full of junk. No one visits there these days, and no one calls this home. It is pretty meaningless to anyone passing by. No memories, no love and only a place of the past.

But to a heartsick woman and a lonely man, it was about to become a special beautiful place. It holds the very beginning of their destiny. The very beginning of a country dream .... one that began long before they ever met. Long before they knew that Ralph's Place would be forever be in their hearts.

It was Destiny ....

Be Blessed Everyone.