One spring when blossoms, birds and gushing streams; the exquisite splendour of nature fashioned the earth, shadows like silent weeping, hung over the estate grounds of a small, private island deep in the tropic.

Once, it was an ethereal place, sweetly serene, for there were two people there living a beautiful love story, and always it seemed like there were songs in the wind.
Now the garden had become dark, its pristine beauty paled by sorrow and the songs of the wild were silenced. She, who was the sunshine and a symbol of grace, had left on a warm morning in April, whispering his name with her last precious breath. Fate in one sweeping moment has separated them and he was left alone, holding her cold hand. No more laughter, no excitement dancing in her eyes, no smile on her lips.

“Why has this happened?” he had cried, “Why have you taken her away from me, dear Lord? How do I live now?”
Life’s patterns from the beginning to the end are designs of fate.
The defect in her heart became so bad, it left only one solution for her to continue living. She would need a heart transplant. Her name was placed on a donor recipient’s list but she refused. She did not want another person’s heart, just her own to die with for she believed it was God’s will. She deeply believed in the miracle of prayers and she had assured him, “I will ask the Lord to send me back to you.”

He had tried his utmost to make her understand the unlikelihood of that happening.
“We are not living in a fairytale world, Anna. Please take the transplant so I won’t lose you.”
She had taken his hand and said to him, “You knew about my condition before we got married, and you knew one day this might happen.”
He nodded but somehow that had been at the back of his mind.

“Then how come you’re not prepared to accept that this is my fate?”
“Because I was hoping…” his voice trailed off.
“Hoping for what?”

He looked at her, tears in his eyes and answered in a low tone, “A miracle.”
She had smiled then, so sweetly, it took away for that moment the distress in his heart, and she had hugged him, saying, “My faith in the Lord is deep and I believe in miracles.”
That fate she had held onto, and as she grew weaker and paler, he had spoken to their pastor in near desperation, but was advised, “You should respect her wishes Son, and let her go if she accedes to your wishes to live with someone else’s heart. It may not make her happy and the love you share will suffer.”

“Do you believe miracles can happen, Father?” he had asked, torn between his wife’s beliefs and his doubts.
“Once you believe, it can happen.”

Sean had sighed deeply and shook his head. He had hoped for a miracle through prayers, that could have ensured she lived a long life despite her heart condition, but not the miracle she believed could happen.
A gloomy day it had been when her funeral service was held, a day when even the leaves seemed to shed tears and the flowers bowed their heads. He had lifted her and laid her on a flower bed under the pink Poui tree that was in full bloom. It had been her wish, for it was a place in the garden she loved the most, where she would sit and read, the pink blossoms from the tree falling on her dark hair.

Time went on after her burial in the church grounds, seasons changing as he lived each day with her beautiful memories – all he had left.
“As much as I want to believe in a miracle, Lord, he had said with deep sadness, “There is some doubt in my mind because I don’t see how it’s possible for her to return to me.”
In the Central American country of Belize, a young woman hurried to school through the rain. She was a teacher, dark-haired, fair and beautiful with a warm personality. Her name was Sarah, and teaching was something she loved; taking her young students each day on journeys of learning, adventure and fun through books. And because of her love for historical romances with Kings, Queens and palaces, her friends often teased her,

“Have you found your prince as yet?”
Always she would laugh and say, “One day, maybe.”
That night, as she laid in bed, she wondered, “Will I find someone with princely qualities? Does he wait for me somewhere?”
Not sure of the answer, her eyes closed in sleep and in her dreams, a voice asked,
“Do you believe in miracles?”

“Yes,” she answered, “Why?”
No answer and the dream vanished.
The next morning, she wondered about the strange dream but as the day proceeded with teaching, it disappeared from her mind until night when she laid down to sleep.
That night her dreams took her on travels across the seas to a land of pristine rainforest, majestic waterfalls and exotic flora and fauna, then further to the coastland. She found herself in an expansive garden in astounding bloom, that was fascinatingly beautiful, but it was strangely quiet.

As she walked, she sensed an aura of sorrow and she wondered, “What happened here?”
A little further in the garden, she stopped to look at the pink Poui tree in brilliant bloom, the ground beneath carpeted in fallen blossoms, and standing a little away from the tree, was a man, his back turned to her.

She gasped a little and he turned around slowly but the dream ended abruptly before she could see who he was and before he could see her.
Sarah sat up, her heartbeat racing and after a short while when she could breathe easy again, she asked aloud, “What in God’s name was that?”
To be continued…