An old memory

My mom has this story of this guy she dated before she met my dad. He took her to this fancy restaurant and was going propose to her but for whatever reason she just couldn’t say yes. He went on to have his own family and successful career but I think they kept in contact and I remember meeting him awhile ago, although I didn’t know their history.  A few years ago my mom was in Thailand and my stepdad had to leave for visa reasons and my mom one day noticed a shadow on one side of her vision in one eye. She knew something was wrong so she covered it, asked people where the hospital was, and found out she needed surgery that day to treat a detached retina.  She had surgery the next day and had some gas bubble put in her eye which required her to have her head facing the floor for a month.  So she returned to her hotel room and kept her face head down the entire time. My mom described how this guy from long ago brought her food during this time and how he was so kind to her and how she couldn’t see him with her head down but only see his feet.  I remember her crying as she told this story and for some reason I thought of this story in DC and I cried too.