Carmen

Description

The Story of Carmen

Several years ago I was on a flight from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Austin via Dallas. Seated next to me was one of the most beautiful young ladies my eyes had ever seen. She looked as she might have Indian blood in her but I was not sure. We spoke little. With absolute amazement as I boarded my flight for Austin, this lovely young lady was again at my side. We made comment about this coincidence but again spoke little.
A couple of weeks later, my wife and I attended a rodeo in Austin. Call it fate or whatever, but as we took our seats, immediately in front of us was this same person with a handsome young man. I thought only a higher being could bring us together again. We invited them to our home.
I learned that her Great Grandmother, known as “Carmen” was Spanish and captured by Indians in 1881. She was raised as a child by the Indians and in 1899 was married to the Indian Chief.
They had a child in 1905. She married an Indian and from this marriage, her mother was born in 1931. Her mother with her Spanish blood met and married a Spanish gentleman in 1958.
The beautiful young lady that I met on that flight was born in 1965 and named after her Great Grandmother, “Carmen”.
Within a month Carmen happily called me to inform me that she and the young man I met at the rodeo were to wed the following June. She was overjoyed as I. We could not, unfortunately, attend her wedding as we had to attend one of the many medical/dental meetings we do each year.
That night I could not get Carmen out of my mind. I thought how we met – so many coincidences. I dreamed of her – she was happy, smiling, I saw her dancing at her wedding – I had the second dance.
Two days before the wedding I had another dream. Funny, I rarely dream. It was Carmen again, I could not see her face – she seemed to be floating toward the noonday sun. I awoke startled.
The phone rang abruptly the first Sunday morning in June. Carmen had died instantly in an automobile accident on the way to her wedding.
I have never been able to get “Carmen” out of my mind. Fate brought the two of us together, there was a reason of which I can not be sure, but one thing I know – this heavenly spirit “Carmen” was going to be immortalized in sculpture so that her story can always be told.