It was a hot August morning, the old man was sitting in his rickety wooden chair. I had seen him before. He always sat there at his rocking chair on the terrace. His hair were white and his eyes blue as the troubled sea. He was a tall, lean man. You could tell from the wrinkles of his face the hardship he had been through in his life. Every day ,when the sun rose he would go outside and sit in his chair till dusk .Looking at the sea with a feeling of melancholy in his eyes that I couldn't understand yet. He had no friends, noone ever visited him , noone really knew him. All I knew about him was his name, Walter Smith. I didn't believe in love and I was certainly not thinking to make a family. Maybe I was a loner just like old Walter.  It wasn't long since I had moved in Alabama. It was 1953, a good time for a banker. I was born and raised at Jackson, Mississippi but I had to go to Mobile, Alabama  as the best retail banker of my time. As my executive said: “I can't branch out without taking a real diamond with me”. And so, here I am leaving next to the old man who hardly ever speaks.  As the time passed,  I got used to the Alabama way of life but there was still one thing I simply couldn't understand , what was the story of old Walter. Mr Smith only left his house if it was a real necessity. But today it was different. It was a Sunday morning  and the bank was closed.He came and knocked at my door. I went to open. I didn't even know he acknowledged my existence 'till this day.

“Patrick” , he said ,“I need your help”.
“Of course, Mr Smith. How can I help you?”
“I heard that you are a good carpenter.”
“Yeah. I spent my free time crafting and as it turns out I'm pretty good at it.”
“Great! Then you are perfect.”
“Perfect for what?”
“Come. I wanna show you something.”
He took me to his backyard. It was full with a pack of wooden boards, axes and nails.
“What's this ?”, I said.
“I want you to help me built a boat.”
“A boat?”
“Yes. So will you help an old man?”
“Yeah, certainly. When do you want to start?”
“Right away.”
“Ok then ,let's begin.”

I went every day and helped the old man to fix his boat. He no longer spent his time on the terrace starring at the sea, he was working at the backyard. The more time we spent together the more I learned about him. He was a sailor who had worked at the ships since he was a child. He told me stories about the adventures that he lived, when the pirates attacked them, when they were lost at sea and finally he told about her. “The first time I saw her , she was with her father at the market. One look at her was enough to sweep me my off my feet. She had long black curly hair that touched her back so gently and her eyes ,oh those eyes. I still can't get them out of my head, blue as the ocean. I went every day and I saw her, we never spoke but sometimes the eyes say more than the mouth can. She was a nurse .I didn't know it at first but when a fellow man got hurt, I took him at the hospital and there she was. Looking as pretty as ever in her white uniform. That was the time we first spoke.
Her name was Lois.”

As he spoke about her, his eyes were glowing and his smile was sparkling. I could tell that he really loved her. I wanted to ask him what happened to her but then again how could I ruin his happiness? So, I just stood there and listened. It had been almost two weeks since we first started fixing the boat, he had built the frame and nailed a few boards but there was a lot of work that needed to be done 'till that baby was ready to travel. As time flew, the quiet and lonely old man seemed to be a troubled soul. One day, I decided to ask him about his dear wife.

“Mr Smith if you don't mind me asking what happened to your wife?”
“O child, that's a long story. Seat back and let me begin. Do you remember when I told you the first time I spoke to her?”
“Yes. It was at the hospital, right?”

“Exactly. Since the day that I saw her there, I would make up an excuse to go and see her every week. I loved talking to her, she had that great smile and she put feeling in everything she said. You could see her character in every word. I couldn't be apart from her. Just the thought made my heart hurt. I was young then, too young, I didn't know what love was but I knew that it had to be it. Not long after that I went ,with her permission of course , to ask her hand from her father. Mr Jack was a good man, generous, kind and most of all honest.He always said what he wanted to say, straight. He told me that with my profession I wouldn't be able to support my family. But I told him that I was raised to work hard and never give up. She has stolen my heart , I told him, I don't think that I will survive without her standing by me. In two months, we were happily married. I was still working at sea and she worked at the hospital. Every day we did the usual trip with the boat , just 10 miles away. But one day storm came upon us. We were lost. The ship sank and we were found trapped in an isolated island. The weeks passed and there was no food left nor water. We were 10 men at the beginning but day by day we got fewer. There was only 3 of us left when a fishboat rescued us. When I got home she was worried sick about me. I remember her coming to the port and holding me so tight in her arms that I could hardly breathe. I actually stayed at the hospital a whole week because I was dehydrated and suffered from hypothermia. When I got home, she told me to quit my job. It is too dangerous, she said, and I can't even imagine myself without you. I loved the sea,you know? I loved the taste of freedom that it gave me. No limits, just the horizon, the uncharted seas but I preferred the abyss that was hidden in her eyes. So, I quitted from my work at the ship and went to look for a job at the land. I soon found a position at a lawyers office. I know what you're gonna say: Me? At a lawyers office? With what qualification? Well, I only kept notes and helped around, I was something like a manly figure of a secretary. But you know a fish can't stay long out of water. I took some friends at the afternoons and went on the open. I knew my lady would mind but it was just for a few hours, it was just a  glimpse of my old life. I missed the sea but deep down I knew she was right that was no life for a family man. She was pregnant, she told just one day before Christmas, the best gift I ever got. I was going to be a father. That moment I felt like everything had finally taken their place, my life was never gonna be the same again. On July, she gave birth to a wonderful little girl, we named her Magdalen. She got her eyes from her mother, deep blue but she got my hair ,blonde. Don't let the white trick you, I was a pretty fellow when I was younger. When Magdalen was almost five , she got sick. She had a really high fever and a sore throat. She was like that for almost a day.We called the doctor and he said that she should eat soup and drink hot tea for her throat and put compress with cold water to lower her fever. My dear Lois was constantly by her side, following every advice the doctor had given her but the fever didn't fall. The next morning when we woke up ,she was lying cold in her bed. She had passed away in her sleep. The forensic surgeon said that she had the Scarlet fever and that it was a common but lethal disease for children that was still incurable. The cost of her lost was unbearable. She was so young. She should have lived more. After 3 years , Lois and I were finally starting to get over our loss.We tried to make another child but it wasn't God's will. ”

“O, my Gosh! I'm so sorry Mr Walter for forcing you to remember all that.”
“Don't worry, son. I've been grieving for a long time. It's time I get over it.”
“And were is your wife?”
“My wife? She passed away 5 years ago.”
“How awful! And from what? If I may ask.”
“She had a heart attack. She also died in her sleep. Can you imagine? Mother and daughter ,both dying in their sleep.”
“At  least they both died happy.”
“Yeah, I guess so. She knew her time was short. Before she died, she told me that I should finally do what I wanted for a long time, travel with a boat.”
“That's why we are building the boat! Now it all makes sense.”
“Yeah. It was her last wish, to free me from my prison, the land. I have been waiting for so long to feel the salty breeze touching my face.”
“Then , we'd better get to work. We got a long way ahead of us.”

Every day, I followed the same routine: work,crafting and rest. But every day was different from the other. After almost three months the boat was ready to sail. Mr Walter invited me to her first trip. He named the boat after his daughter, Magdalen. On Sunday, we took her to the sea it was great. We made a habit out of it and every Sunday or holiday we took the boat and went on the open. Sometimes to fish, sometimes to talk or just enjoy the silence. Somehow the sea allowed us to express our deepest thoughts and feelings. Among the many conversations that he had , this one I remember vividly.He was telling me about his wife and how much I would have  liked her if I had met her. And as he spoke, I couldn't help but ask:
“What's the point of loving someone if it's ment to hurt you?”
“O, my dear. The point? There is no point in love but you do it either way. Certainly, the lost of my family cost me a lot. But I wouldn't change not even a second of the moments that I spent with Lois and my beloved Magdalen.”
“But how can you say that? Wouldn't you want them to live more?”
“Of course, I would but their deaths were God's providence.Believe me, I would prefer to have loved her and lost her a thousand times than to have never felt the magic of her love. I cherish the memories and although they have passed away in the real life, they are still alive in my heart and someday we will meet again.”

And that was the moment I truly understood the value of love. When you get married they say 'till death do you part. But now I realise that not even death can separate two hearts that love each other. It is an eternal bond.Till this day,1963, me and Walter are something like best friends. We still have our trips with the boat. Who would have guessed that the lonely old man would turn out to be the one who would teach me what love really is ? Or be my best friend? Now, I can say that I am  proud of what I have become. Or maybe of what Walter made me. It's time I find my own Lois. And there is one thing I will teach my children. The story of my (unexpected) friend ,Walter.