The Story That Waited Until It Was Time

A tale written in 2014, rediscovered and honored in the San Diego Library’s Top 10

Image by Alysia Moonrise

Some stories arrive like lightning. Others take their time.

In 2014, I wrote a little tale that whispered itself to me in fragments—part dream, part knowing, part question. I was exploring something I couldn’t quite name at the time, being in the darkest point of my life: What does true, unconditional love look like? Especially when we’ve grown old together? What remains when the mind forgets, but the soul still remembers?

That seed became The Quirky Old Couple—a magical realism story about a pair of elderly lovers in their final earthly moments. The wife, touched by a kind of magical amnesia, moves through a world that shimmers just slightly beyond the veil. The husband, tender and patient, holds space for what she no longer recalls. Their departure arrives sooner than they anticipated—taken by a ship to a place beyond the moon, returning home to something eternal.

This story has always held a quiet, sacred place in my heart. It’s a love letter to the unseen, to devotion that transcends memory, to the mystery of endings that are really just new beginnings.

Back when I first wrote it, I submitted it to The Writership Podcast. To my delight, they chose it for a full editorial deep dive—reading and discussing it on one of their episodes. That alone felt like magic.

Not only did it give me hope in my talent as a writer, but it also brought me a beautiful connection with one of the show's editors, Leslie Watts, who played a significant part in inspiring me to continue writing in the years that followed. While this podcast no longer airs new episodes, you can still listen to my episode on Apple Podcasts if you’re interested!

And then, this year, something even more unexpected happened.

I submitted The Quirky Old Couple to the San Diego Public Library Short Story Contest and learned that it had been selected as one of the Top 10 Finalists. I already knew I had made the shortlist going into the awards ceremony—but I still sat in that downtown library, heart open and curious, to witness the top three stories be revealed and read aloud.

While mine wasn’t one of the final three, being chosen out of hundreds of submissions—over a decade after the story was born—was more than enough. It was a full-circle moment. A reminder that stories born from soul and stardust have their own timing. That love stories don’t always follow the rules. That the mystical, quiet tales can still be heard.

Thank you, always, for being here in the mystical depths with me. May we all remember what waits for us just beyond, in the Unseen.

You can read the story here, if you haven’t already:

🌙 The Quirky Old Couple

And here’s the link to the beautiful contest that gave this story a new life:

📚 San Diego Public Library Short Story Contest

Moonrise Mystic is the journey of a novelist connecting her love of story with her passion for the mystical into one moving, breathing prayer. It’s for those who love to read fantasy stories and intuitive writings that explore expanding through the initiations of life, death and rebirth, and transmuting shadow to light. Thank you for being here!