Remembering You by Sandi Lynn

Chapter 17

Sam and I climbed in his car and he drove around the corner and threw the car in park. He turned his body so he was facing me and grabbed my hand.

“You are an amazing woman. What you did back there took a lot of strength and courage. I love you so much, Claire Montgomery.” He smiled.

I took in a deep breath before I leaned over and softly kissed his lips. “You’re the one who gives me strength, Sam. Being with you is the best thing that ever happened to me, again.” I smiled. “I want to and need to remember our time together before the accident and the only person who can help with that is your mom.”

“Claire, I’m not ready to—”

“Shh…” I said as I put my finger over his lips. “Your mom was worried about your medical bills and your future. She did what she had to in order to help you. Corinne and Harry are very convincing people. Why do you think she kept an envelope with our pictures in it? Because she knew that someday, we’d find each other again. You need to go and make things right with her. Tell her you forgive her and tell her how much you love her. You’re all she has, Sam.”

He looked down as a tear fell from his eye. “You’re right. Will you come with me?” he asked.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I smiled before kissing him again.

Sam took in a deep breath, put the car in drive, and drove to his mom’s house. As we pulled up in the driveway, she was in the front, planting some flowers. She turned around and smiled when she saw us. We got out of the car as she took off her gardening gloves. Sam walked to her and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly. Tears started to roll down her face as she kept apologizing over and over again.

“It’s okay, Mom,” Sam said.

“No, Sam, it’s not okay. What I did was wrong and I’m so ashamed.”

My phone kept ringing and ringing. I pulled it out of my purse and saw that I had missed calls from Harry, Zoey, Ally, and Rachel. I turned off my phone. The first thing I was going to do when I got back to Seattle was buy a new phone with a new number.

“Everything okay?” Sam asked me.

“Everything’s good.” I smiled.

Sam walked his mom into the house, and I followed behind. She had just made some chocolate chip cookies and fresh lemonade. She asked Sam to put the plate of cookies on the table while she went and got something. A few moments later, she walked out with a phone and handed it to Sam.

“This is the phone you had before the accident. It has more pictures on it, but I want you to see all the text messages you sent back and forth to each other. I’m going to go back outside and finish planting those flowers while you two look through them and see what your life was like before the accident.”

“Why did you save this stuff, Mom?”

She placed her hand on his cheek and smiled. “Because I had hoped that someday you’d find each other again and you’d want to know.”

“I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, Sam. If you need me, I’ll be outside.”

Sam and I sat down on the couch and started looking through his phone. We started with the pictures. Even though the screen had a crack in it, we could see the pictures clearly. There were only a few pictures of us that his mom didn’t get developed. There were a lot of pictures at the beach, my graduation, and at a park with Ally and Rachel. I put my head on Sam’s shoulder as he pointed to our silly faces and we laughed. He began scrolling through the text messages. As we read them, tears started to fall down my face. Just to read his words and my words back was enough to show how much we cared and loved each other.

“I’m going to marry you one day, Claire, and we’ll have our own snow babies.”

“You better, Sam Snow, and I’m holding you to that, forever!”

“I promise you a perfect forever, babe.”

“And I promise you a perfect forever, my love.”

I lifted my head as Sam wiped the tears from my eyes. “These messages still hold true. They are our past, present, and future, Claire,” he said as he kissed my lips.

I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face into his neck. “We’re right where we’re supposed to be.”

We got up from the couch and walked outside. Sam and I knelt down next to his mom and helped her plant the rest of the flowers. She looked at us with a smile and nodded her head.

This life. The life I was supposed to have all along was finally mine. I wasn’t part of a person anymore. Now, I was whole. My heart and soul had been filled. Filled with love and kindness by a man who was meant to be mine since the day we both were born. No accident or memory loss could stand in the way of us being together. God had a plan for the two of us and he made sure we found each other once again. This timeline of life we ride is unknown, and now I knew that everything happened for a reason. Sam being the reason for my survival, and me being the reason for his.

* * *

Two years later, Sam and I were married in a small ceremony that consisted of his mom, Cal and the new friends we’d made in Seattle. I’d undergone the surgery that Dr. Benjamin suggested and every day, the headaches became far and few in between. I never did get all of my life memories back, but it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered to me were the few memories that surfaced of me and Sam before the accident. We were happy and created new memories that would last us a lifetime.

Sam’s mom and Cal had grown closer since Sam moved to Seattle and before we knew it, they both moved to be closer to us. Sam and Cal partnered up and opened their own auto repair and restoration shop and Sam’s mom took on a nursing job at the local hospital. As for me, I ended up taking some classes at U of W and writing a book about my experience as an amnesia victim. My book soared to the top of the charts becoming a bestseller within a matter of weeks. My story had spread around the world and before I knew it, I was doing interviews for various magazines and TV shows. People were fascinated about our story and I didn’t hold back about what my family had done to keep Sam and I apart. I hadn’t spoken to my family or friends since that day and I never once regretted it.

Two years after we were married, Sam and I welcomed our first child into the world. A baby girl we named Ashley Marie Snow. Two years later, we welcomed our second child into the world, Christian Samuel Snow. Our life was perfect. A life I never dreamed I would have after the accident.

I believe in the immeasurable power of love, that true love can endure any circumstance and reach across any distance.

~Dr. Steven Maraboli

When it’s time for souls to meet, there’s nothing on Earth that can prevent them from meeting, no matter where each may be located.

~Kushandwi Zoom