Helping other people, mom said, is how I came to be the center of the family.

“Your dad calls me his precious angel,” mom said Christmas Eve morning. Dad and I had planned to go for our regular walk on a nearby trail, greeting everyone, regulars and first-timers alike. The cold didn’t stop us from going … but the pouring rain did.

Being in what mom and dad call “one of my inquisitive moods,” I asked her about how they met.

So begins a short romantic tale of how two people, both hurting emotionally, found love and new careers in the most unlikely of places: a running trail.