I slowly walked along St Pete's beach searching for the Tikki Bar. It had been eight years since Lynda and I had been here but it held very special memories and I was determined to find it. The sun was beating down and I had not dressed appropriately for the beach, so I was getting a little damp with perspiration. Still, after driving around 1200 miles to get here, I was single-minded about finding the place. I would find it, however long it took. There was nowhere else I would rather be.

36 hours before I had no clue that I was going to make this pilgrimage. I had been just waking up in Chicago, Illinois to start a new day pottering around the house, but events, beyond my control, had led me in a totally different direction. As I walked through the soft sand, I thought about the events everything had brought me here.

This is the story of my wife Lynda and I