A ghost from past appears

So the other night....I pop online the other night to check my mail....and (here's where my wife will roll her eyes) "lo & behold", I have an email from my ex-wife.
This would be the former Mrs Me # 2 for those of you keeping score.  That would mean that I didn't have to think about contacting the police, like I might have if I got an email from THE OTHER ONE.  Anyway, it was a surprising...almost stunning email.  When I first opened it, she talked about the death of our beloved dog Misty.
Now, it has been almost 6 months since that happened, so my first initial reaction was---ya know....thanks for giving me the news.  But I continued to read the letter, and it was geniunely very sweet and real.  She talked about how hard it was to let Misty go, and how she knew how much I loved our "daughter".  What surprised me even more---almost shocked me actually--was when she began to apologize for all the craziness that surrounded our marriage and how she hoped that one day I could forgive her for not being "the wife you deserved".  I was stunned.  I showed the note to Kim, not because I was violating any sort of trust, but because I don't keep anything from her (I'd like to think I learn a FEW lessons as I go along in life).  She read it and said it was a very nice letter.
I waited a day or two, and wrote Kelly back.  I told her that our marriage was what it was--that she had nothing to apologize for.  I told her that, in hindsight, that we both had entered the marriage thinking about how we were going to change the other person.  That I had learned that people generally are the way that they are, and that you either accept them or not.  I told her that she was a wonderful person who had a lot to offer and that I hoped that she was doing well.  And then....I added something on to the letter, and was glad I did.  I told her that I had always wondered what would happen if...one day...we were in a mall or a Publix or something....and we both turned a corner and there was the other person.  We might be alone, we might be with our family....what would we do?  Would we greet each other with scorn or contempt...or would the years have tempered some old memories of bad things...and would we be able to greet each other as two people who had once cared about each other very much.
I was very happy when she responded to my letter again.  She told me that she had also wondered about the same thing...and said that she believed that we could greet each other as two old friends.  It really made my day.  It made my day because her sister is married to my best friend.  It made my day because I've known her sister for over 20 years and have been friends that long.  It made my day because my wife has met her sister--socialized with her on more than one occasion...and that they seem to actually really like one another.  It just made my life easier to know that this spectre is looming over two friendships that I hold very dearly.
It made me know that time.....maybe it can really heal some wounds.

Later,
Jeff