When I think of all the things in my life that have happened serendipitously, I am amazed because I have had such a strange but exciting life despite my battles with alcoholism and addiction, my battles with depression and being bipolar, thriving, not just surviving with HIV/AIDS for 22 years now.

I must honestly say that the most precious and important occurrence of serendipity has got to be when my husband of almost 18 years, Cruz called information to find my number in January 2001 because he just needed a friend to talk to. I have mentioned in previous posts that Cruz and I became friends in 1997 but had lost contact for a few years. When he called me in January 2001, I was by no means looking for love, a relationship or even any other type of encounters. I was happy just being me and working for SITEL Corporation as an Operations Team Manager.

But our whirlwind courtship was just amazing and call me a hopeless romantic, but when I received two dozen long stem red roses at work on Valentine’s Day 2001, I knew that Cruz was a keeper. When I moved in with him in October 2001, I brought two cats Mamas – who ran away not long after I moved in and Little Bit who passed in 2011 and Cruz had one dog Daisymae that had been with him 12 years already and she crossed the Rainbow Bridge in 2007. If you had told me then that we would see each-other through multiple health issues leading to the death of his father in June 2006, the murder of his niece in March 2011, the deaths of both my grandmothers in the space of a little over 3 months – which caused a really bad downward spiral for me, his mother’s open heart surgery in July 2015 and of course the arrival of Stitch, Buddy, our first Tippy, Sissy, Missy, Fluffy,, Minnie (Doodle), Patty and our second Tippy who over the years have crossed the Rainbow Bridge, and of course our current four legged babies Crissy, Little Bitty, Zailey Sadie and Stitchy – I would have told you that you were crazy because I never saw myself being loved and wanted by someone for the rest of my life.

One of the greatest things that ended up happening serendipitously was when Cruz bought our current house in 2006, he reminds me often that he bought this house for me. I have been truly blessed through all my madness and I am always happy to find some SERENDIPITY wherever it comes from. But today – I thank my God for all the gifts in my life and all of the most important people in my life – my sisters, their husbands, my nieces and their children, my father and stepmother, Cruz and of course his mother, and the many friends over the years especially my best friend Yoli who by the way is one of those pieces of serendipity in my life.
That’s what’s in “My Rattled Cage”, thanks for stopping by!!!

#JusJoJan 2019 Daily Prompt – Jan. 20th