A sad serendipity is a paradox, but I’m not quite sure how to describe what just happened here in the Starbucks, where I work on the mornings I take my son to Baton Rouge for his classical tutorial.

A new friend I met when we moved to Louisiana sat down next to me to say hello as he waited for his coffee. D. is a great guy. We went on a fishing trip together about a year ago. I hadn’t seen him in a while, and asked how it was going.

“Not good,” he said. “Two weeks ago, my wife was diagnosed with liver cancer.”

They are both in their early 30s. They have a baby daughter. The prognosis is uncertain, but not good.

This news is heartbreaking. This news is infuriating. This news is familiar. D. knows this, saying, “I guess you kind of know what this is like” — a reference to Little Way, and my sister’s cancer struggle. I asked D. if he had read the book. He said he hadn’t gotten around to it. Here’s where the serendipity part comes in: one of you readers with a relative in Baton Rouge bought a copy of Little Way through Amazon.com, and had it sent to me; I’d offered to sign it for her and deliver it to her relative’s house as a present. The book arrived from Amazon yesterday. I put it in my bag this morning. I hadn’t yet signed it, but when I finished my coffee, I was going to do that, then take it over to the relative.

So I had the copy in my bag to give to my friend and his wife, who are now about to walk the same path Ruthie and her husband walked — though God willing, to a happier ending. I’ll leave here in a moment and go buy a replacement at the bookstore, and make the delivery.

I am grieved, literally grieved, for what D. and his wife are going through, and will do whatever I can to help them. I believe that it was no coincidence that he happened to come in here today, on the very day that I happened to have a copy of Ruthie’s story in my backpack, because a reader on the East Coast wanted her family member in Baton Rouge to have a copy in time for her birthday. Maybe Ruthie’s story will bring them comfort and help them carry this cross.

Please pray for D. and Mrs. D.