Artist: Lisa Brokop
Writer: Jeff Black

Chapter One – 1993

“You came in and out of my life like lightning in a storm,
And by the time the thunder rolled in, I reached for you and, you were gone.
I guess I barely got to know you; I guess I hardly know myself.
I still have some things here for you that I can’t give to no one else.”

On a late-spring evening in Nashville, TN, I boarded the General Jackson Showboat for a pre-Fan Fair event with my CMA colleagues. Shortly we left the dock, I saw a guy standing at the railing, watching the Cumberland River roll past—at least that’s how I remember it—and everything about him drew me in, from his soft baby face, to the modified mullet he sported back then. Captivated, I asked my friend Mandy Wilson for an introduction, and she obliged me, officially ushering Chance Chambers into my life.

We spent the entire cruise getting to know each other. After we docked and returned to land, we spent several more hours sitting on the hood of his Mitsubishi Galant, talking as we sobered up. Surely he’ll ask me out before we say goodnight, I thought. But the later it got, the less it looked like he would, so I did it. I asked him if he’d like to go to a movie sometime. To my great relief, he said yes.

For the next five months, we enjoyed an easy, breezy romance—an extended summer fling—and I loved him as much as my 21-year-old heart allowed. It ended abruptly for reasons that don’t matter anymore, and maybe never did, but he stayed with me. For years, the roads seemed littered with Mitsubishi Galants of all colors, but mostly silver. I continued to wear vests, one of his trademark fashions, stubbornly telling myself it was just because I looked good in them.

And then there was this song:

“Never did say goodbye,
I never did tell you how you changed my life…
…Maybe I’ll see you again, maybe that’s the reason why
We never did say goodbye.”

How prophetic….