Second Chance At Love: Thanks To My Banana Bread

Do you have a secret recipe for love? I thought I knew it all when I first got married back in 1988.

I was young and immature. I thought that if two people were in love, they get married, plan a future, and live happily ever after. 

Little did I know that it just doesn’t happen that way. At least for me. Love needs attention. It’s like a flowering pot. It needs nurturing. Like a flower, it needs sunlight and watering. To make a long story short, after being divorced I was hopeful for the second chance at love. My story on having this amazing second chance included my special recipe for my banana bread. 

Funny but it was because of it that I got to my happily ever after. Okay….this might sound confusing but let me tell you the story behind it then I’ll explain why the ingredients in my banana bread is just like the ingredients we all need to get to our happily ever after. To have that spice in life that helps keep the fire burning. So, here it goes. 

When I was dating my husband John, boyfriend then, I felt my soul awakened. It was an unexplainable feeling. I have been in love before, but this feeling was very different. I am older and knew exactly what I wanted this time around. 

I was a single mom and that needed to be on the table from the very start of the relationship. I wasn’t ever going to date someone who did not love and accept my child. I thought all along that everything was cool between John and I. But as the relationship got deeper, and I was introduced to family and friends, John had to deal with people’s opinion about me. Some would say that I was used baggage, and some would advise John not to start his life with a woman who already has a child. It was painful to hear it. 

I may not have understood it back then but I understand it now. There concerns were understandable being that John was young and single. He’s one year older than me and have a lot going for himself.

I recall him telling his mother…“Mom, you need to get to know her, then

you’ll understand why I love her.”

Everything was sinking in for him. The confusion and the thought of being a father to my son was something he wasn’t sure he could handle at a young age. 

Nonetheless, we continued on. Unfortunately, one winter dreary day, John confronted me with a very heavy heart. He did not feel he was ready to take on the relationship and broke up with me. It was the longest, saddest 2 weeks of my life! Why only 2 weeks? Because at the end of the 2 weeks I decided to bake my amazing banana bread! 

I baked it, boxed it, and had it delivered to his office with a very special note. So when it got to his office, he opened the box and took a slice of bread and quickly picked up the phone to call me. “Can I see you?” …. he said “It has been the longest 2 weeks of my life, can we see each other as friends?” I said “Absolutely!” And as soon as we laid eyes on each other it was destiny. We were in love! Seeing each other only as friends wasn’t going to work. This time it was defined that him and I were destined and nothing else matters. No one’s opinion of our situation could break us! John loved my son and he loved the union we have. 

Was there a love potion mixed in my banana bread? Or was it simply the love I have making it and the hope for a second chance at love? Nevertheless, my banana bread brought us back together. 

Like my bread.,,moist to prolong the love, sugar for sweetness, a pinch of salt for some spice, eggs for liveliness, bananas for being mushy at times and walnuts for texture that will keep the fire burning ?❤ 

 

John and I married August 2, 1997. And this is a true story ?