A Second Chance Reunion

The AIAIA delegation continues to make many life long memories with our friends and families in South Africa. It is a total pleasure to experience the human connections that are created everyday.

One of the benefits that I find in  having journeyed for twenty-three years in this community is the frequency of chance meetings. I have often remembered a young adult that I had first met in the early years of traveling to SA. He lived here in the village of Malungeni. Interestingly, the only name that I had ever heard for the young man was the number “99.” I could always rely on “99” to be one that was first to welcome and make you feel at home. I can vividly recall the sense of loss and sadness when I learned that this very creative and passionate young adult had unexpectedly died. It was determined that 99 had quite likely experienced a seizure on his way home and died as a result of a fall.

I had never had the opportunity to meet 99’s other family members until today. I make a point of bringing photos that I have taken over the years and making sure that the old photos find their way to families of origin. Today’s gift was meeting 99’s mother for the first time and being honored to give her the only photo that existed of her late son, 99. Most grateful to have randomly chose 99’s photo for this trip and even more grateful for this chance meeting with his mother.

Perhaps Gilda Radner said it best,
“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned the hard way. That some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.  Delicious ambiguity…..”

James Cassidy