at the risk of sounding like a Gleek: don't stop believing.

I'm sorry for the title but I spent two days thinking about it and this is the best that I could come up with, so deal with it :D

But don't worry, this is not some motivational piece. I met up with my best friend over beer a couple of days ago and he told me this interesting story that happened to his father and it really moved me because although I'm not a religious person, I believe in miracles.

My friend's father is a retired army officer. A couple of years ago, when he was already in his 80s, his father lost his house. To lose the house one has been living for years, especially at that age, was a severe blow. But there was nothing he could do. Being a strong man that he is, he accepted the fact that he will have no house in his old age, rented a house from one of his relatives and moved on with life.

One day, he received a sad news. The older sister of his close friend back from his youth passed away. The woman was a professor and a very prominent figure in women's health in this country (I missed the detail on this one, sorry).

Back in the 1940s, when Indonesia was still at war and he was still a young army officer, my friend's father once guarded the professor on her dangerous journey from Yogyakarta to Jakarta to take the admission test to be a doctor at the University of Indonesia. The journey from Yogyakarta to Jakarta takes 8 hours by train at present day, so in the 1940s it must have been 16 hours or more. And remember both cities were in turmoil so that was one dangerous trip the professor had to take and my friend's father made sure that she arrived in Jakarta safely to take the test. She aced the test and became very successful.

After she passed away, her family called my friend's father and told him that the professor left him some money because she was grateful for his help a long time ago. The family asked for my friend's father bank account number and he gave it and quickly forgot about it.

Until one day, he received his bank statement and was utterly surprised to see that the professor actually left him Rp 1 billion (US$ 100,000). My friend's father quickly called the professor's family and they confirmed that indeed it was in the professor's will to leave him Rp 1 billion. The professor felt forever indebted to my friend's father because had it not been for him, she wouldn't have made it to Jakarta and wouldn't have become a doctor. My friend's father was rendered speechless by the act of kindness. The professor did not know about his financial difficulties because they had not been in contact for so long. That she decided to leave him a significant amount of money was a miracle. Pure and simple.

Rp 1 billion is more than enough to buy a house. My friend's father bought a much better house that the one he lost and he can now spend his old days in comfort.

So there.

Miracles do happen.

I've always believed that. It happened to me. It happened to people I know.

The next time I'm in the brink of desperation, I will remember this story. I hope you will too, and that's the reason I'm posting it in the first place :)