XXV. The Traveling Peacoat

When I left Colorado for Texas in 83′ I assumed I was saying farewell to the cold temperatures and winters. Everything I knew about Texas had been garnered from watching old westerns and the hit TV series, Dallas. Winters appeared to be mild if not almost nonexistent. I kept one lite jacket and left my winter coats behind.

My first winter in Austin sent me rushing to Goodwill looking for a cheap second hand coat that I would probably wear only two or three times a year but was a necessity. I found an old 100% wool Navy Peacoat. It would become my go to coat on those few days it was needed. Over the years several of the guys I work with would tell me how it reminded them of their time in the Navy many years ago.

I met Bill when I left the private workforce and took my nonprofit job with the state of Texas almost 30 years ago. We work for a large behavioral health and intellectual & developmental disabilities agency. (also known as MHMR – Mental Health and Mental Retardation back in the day). Its the kind of workplace where staff treat each other like family. We share our triumphs and challenges. I have made many lifelong friends, some have moved on to other jobs, some have retired, some have passed away.

Back in the late 90’s I was very vocal about my ideas on how “everything worked”, the cosmic connection, synchronicity, everything happens for a reason, etc. Occasionally these vocalizations manifested in our mail room, a common area staff flowed in and out of frequently. Bill happened to wander in on one of these “rap sessions”, was intrigued and we would speak in greater depth about these ideas over the years. He, like others, would begin to reminisce about his youthful days in the Navy each time he saw me in my Peacoat.

One day I wore it to work and as we were standing around the mail room Bill started talking about his Navy days, specifically the little trailer park he and his wife lived in when they first got married and were stationed in Maryland. Maryland? I was born in Maryland. A trailer park in Maryland is listed as my mothers residence on my birth certificate. A few quick calculations and we determined that had it been the same trailer park, we could have been there about the same time. That was a coincidence we had never put together over all the years that the subject kept coming up. He went onto share that during conversations with his wife, sparked by our conversations at work, they had determined that his Peacoat had accidentally been misplaced or sent to Goodwill the last time they moved.

I laughed and told him I had actually bought the coat I was wearing from Goodwill almost 20 years prior. It was authentic as it had a servicemen’s hand written social security number on it. As I pulled the coat open to display this information, which I had not bothered to look at since acquiring the coat, there, in Bill’s own handwriting was his name and social security number. The name was W. Boyd which I had never put together as I only knew him as Bill. We were both speechless and then just started to laugh. We couldn’t count how many times I had worn it and we had talked about it over the years and never bothered to look inside.

Divine Synchronicity – That moment when you feel you are exactly where you are supposed to be, doing exactly what you came to that moment to do.

I had to wear the coat home but returned the next day with it and a camera. We took a photo and I then gave Bill his coat back..or should I say, helped the universe return it after its long journey home. He told me how he and his wife had talked about things the night before they had forgotten over their life filled years together. The coat was a bridge, a gentle reminder of a shared history…life…love!

Bill retired a number of years ago. He came to see me one last time before he left. He expressed his gratitude for not only the coat, a decades long friendship but also for being a catalysis for him to experience part of the underling connectivity we like to believe exist in everything. We never saw each other or spoke again. Life moved on.

I got the word this morning that Bill passed peacefully in his sleep a few days ago. He was a good, decent and genuine man. He lived a wonderful life with his lifelong partner and raised a beautiful family. His legacy is intact. I imagine Bill gazing at me now, laughing about how much we got right and how far off we were in regards to the “ultimate nature” of the universe.

I’ll remember you, friend and smile when I do. Sail on cosmic traveler.