2nd Time Around by Valerie Cheers Brown Foreword I dedicate this book to my first love Jerome Eugene Brailey, who is my first and my last love. You don’t know how excited I was to hear your voice again after 30 years! I had prayed and asked God to send you to me and He did just that, for the ‘Second Time Around.’ I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you and will honor and cherish you for the rest of our days. Yes, I will marry you and I dreamed that you asked me on Christmas of December of 2012, and this may seem a bit far-fetched, but this is my dream and I am allowed to dream. This is what has kept me holding onto us meeting again Jerome, and even though I never actually heard you ask me, I felt that you did and I accepted it in my dream and on Facebook, and that was the happiest day of my life! I decided that day that no matter how long it would take; I would wait for you! I love you and hope to have this book done before we actually meet, but if we don’t meet before it is published please note that these are my vows to you Jerome Eugene Brailey. “I believe in you, the person you will grow to be and the couple we will be together. With my whole heart, I take you as my husband, acknowledging and accepting your faults and strengths, as you do mine. I promise to be faithful and supportive and to always make our family’s love and happiness my priority. I will be yours in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health, in failure and in triumph. I will dream with you, celebrate with you and walk beside you through whatever our lives may bring. You are my person—my love and my life, today and always.” Chapter 1 ~ the Meeting This story begins with Vanessa meeting Jerome during his concert accidentally for the very first time and he was actually playing the drums when she spotted him on stage during his band’s performance. The story revolves around this romantic meeting which leads them both into bigger and better things, each neither had ever had in their entire lives. It might have been a romantic meeting which would end and went their separate ways, but then them again after 30 years meet again by accident, yet again or was it meant to be?
Could it be by accident that these two met each other again and then meet one another again for the second time the same way on this time from faraway? The ‘second time around’ is the sure thing and they both have a faraway romance which leads them both into becoming very successful and eventually end up getting married, only after not seeing each other until both of their dreams are met working effortlessly, long distance from each one other which is truly what makes this dream the best ever and to some unbelievable! Don’t ever think that long distance relationships don’t work, and wait until you see what happens with these two, and it will make you want to date long distance just to make certain you are made for one other for the rest of your lives and only by God’s doing. What makes this story so beautiful is how Vanessa and Jerome fall madly in love for the very first time in their lives without ever seeing each during this faraway romance the whole entire time or could actually be called secret lovers. When they finally do meet, it is the biggest wedding ever planned for them both and he knows about it but she doesn’t, but Vanessa works hard and by working hard she felt that this would allow her not to get into a relationship without first having her very own. Vanessa prayed to God to send her a good man and this is how it all began. You see Vanessa had never showed her talents to anybody, but it was something about this romance that not only made Vanessa fall in love with this amazing man Jerome, but she showed a side of herself that she did not even know she had. Vanessa was talented but was never inspired nor encouraged and when one thing did not work, she worked like crazy on something else and this was writing. Vanessa started being inspired by all of these amazing angels who were motivating her and these incredible mentors were now following her with great challenges of motivation. She knew that God never broke His promises and she knew one day she would be reunited with the man of her past life, which she had not seen in over 30 years or more.
The story begins in 2012 when Vanessa was browsing on the computer looking for a copy of her book and instead she pulls up what looked like a face of a person she knew from her past. Vanessa just happened to be looking for a copy of her first published book to post onto Facebook, and instead she pulled up his book by mistake. She zoomed in to enlarge the book cover photo to get a better look and for sure it was him! You could say that she got a ‘birds-eye view’ so she could see it much clearer and she thought she recognized the face on the front of this book. This beautiful face looked like somebody who she had known from over 30 years ago in their pass life. She was shocked when the person on the front of the book, was really Jerome, a guy she had a short relationship with over 30 years back was actually on this book and it was his first book too and they just happened to have the very same color of purple for their book covers. Vanessa enlarged the book cover and it was him, Jerome, and she smiled. She pulled the book up so she could find information hoping she could contact her long lost first love from over 30 years ago. She thought since he had a book maybe he had a Facebook page, so she went onto Facebook and there he was, and there were many accounts in his name and by him being a musician, artist, celebrity she looked for any signs of drums. Vanessa could not believe that she had found this man, this wonderful man who had taken her over 30 years ago to his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, to meet his mom and family. She was so excited and she requested becoming his friend and prayed that he would accept her friendship. He immediately accepted her friendship and then she sent him a message telling him who she was. When they had known each other previously, Vanessa had a different last name from a previous marriage.
Little did Vanessa know that Jerome had been trying to find her for the longest but did not know her new married name? They both recognized each other and exchanged phone numbers. Vanessa called Jerome and they spoke and got to know each other all over again. The moment she heard his voice, it was like she had been blessed by God. It was the best conversation ever and she was so excited and she could hear it in his voice that he was excited to hear her voice also! A few weeks previously before Vanessa and Jerome found each other, Vanessa had placed her Bible onto her forehead and had prayed to God to send her a man He thought she should be with and who would love and cherish her with all of her flaws and her mostly her past. Vanessa had no idea that God would send this amazing man she was destined to be with for the rest of their entire living days on this earth. And it was her incredible and amazing drummer man, Jerome her very first real love! Chapter 2 – Have you ever? Vanessa decided to sing this chapter and express how she felt about Jerome and she sang this song to herself quite often and listened even more at night before going to bed! Vanessa loved this song by Brandy so much and had it on her mind all of the time and it is called: “Have You Ever?” by Brandy [Chorus] Have you ever loved somebody so much It makes you cry Have you ever needed something so bad You can’t sleep at night Have you ever tried to find the words But they don’t come out right Have you ever, have you ever Have you ever been in love Been in love so bad
You’d do anything to make them understand Have you ever had someone steal your heart away You’d give anything to make them feel the same Have you ever searched for words to get you in their heart But you don’t know what to say And you don’t know where to start [Chorus] Have you ever found the one You’ve dreamed of all of your life You’d do just about anything to look into their eyes Have you finally found the one you’ve given your heart to Only to find that one won’t give their heart to you Have you ever closed your eyes and Dreamed that they were there And all you can do is wait for the day when they will care [Chorus] What do I gotta do to get you in my arms baby What do I gotta say to get to your heart To make you understand how I need you next to me Gotta get you in my world ‘Cuz baby I can’t sleep [Chorus] Have you ever heard a song which fit your life exactly? Well…. Brandy’s song “Have You Ever” did this exactly for Vanessa and the way she felt about Jerome. Vanessa listened to this song day end and day out. Every single word was true for her and Jerome. Vanessa thought she and Jerome’s love was past, and present perfect but was very anxious and waiting to see him again for the first time in over thirty years. When did you? Where did you? Why did you? How did you? Was this fate? Vanessa and Jerome spoke on and off but not that much on the telephone at all. Vanessa would text him a few times, but this was not what they did best and not part of God’s plan neither…. God had it in His plan for their test where they would love each other even more…but not by talking like couples usually do.
What the two of them did best was played music to one another on Facebook and Vanessa even felt that there were messages in Google Plus too, so she would go their regularly and like many posts and music. What Jerome and Valerie did was started music pages and allowed imaginary friends to be the members and administrators. They played along with each other and this was their way of communicating with one another and never really talked on the telephone nor text messaged each other like…. how would you say most normal people would have done? But…you see these two were not normal and this was a unique and special thing about these two. God’s way of testing the two of them was keeping them apart from each other, but in each other’s hearts and what did this do for these two? They fell head over hills in love with each other! What they did was prayed for each other all of the time, inspired one another, motivated one another, Vanessa wrote poetry and he also had poetry posted which was like being with each other, even though they were not in the flesh. Vanessa and Jerome were always together in spirit and in each other’s hearts and never not once left each other’s side. You see…. when one hearts beat for two people it turns into one and the feelings were apparent for them both at all times. She knew how he was feeling and he knew how she was feeling……and that was missing each another and anxiously awaiting their meeting. Vanessa had moments where she could barely stand to look at his photo because it tore her up inside. There were many times where Vanessa just felt like giving up, but she kept on praying and kept on asking God to give her signs that Jerome was the man for her and He did! Jerome had moments where he stopped speaking to Vanessa via email, but Vanessa knew why because she felt the same way only with looking at his photo, yet, they both remained strongly in love with each other.
Vanessa had moments where she often thought, “What would I say to him if I did talk to him?” Vanessa would think “I want to see him so bad,” and it only made Vanessa sadder to think about even talking to Jerome. So the two of them continued playing and making music to occupy each other’s heart until they finally met in person. When this was…. only God knew! It was often so very hard for Vanessa and at times she would have to stay off of Facebook because she felt kind of angry at times…. and did not want to say anything to hurt this man she was so in love with nor any of the beautiful angels God had put into their lives! But…. being the Christian woman she was, she forgave him all of the time. Being off of Facebook became very hard for Vanessa and she often felt like she was cheating Jerome if she did not go to listen to the music he was posting for her and when she was there on Facebook, it actually felt like she was with Jerome. I know silly huh? But……this was all Vanessa had to hold onto for now until they finally met one another again! So she kept herself busy with reading and writing while also living her life single with peace! More than anything else, Vanessa stayed prayerful and it seemed when she prayed to God, He always answered her very quickly when it came to Jerome! Even though they posted so much music and had so many music pages, she still sometimes felt neglected by him although, she felt his presence constantly it was not the same as seeing him face to face. So, what they would do is chat with each other…. only he used fictitious names and sometimes she did not feel right by being so free and open…. but Vanessa felt in her heart it was him all along. But many times, she again felt like she was cheating on Jerome! But….one day finally a chatter appeared with the name Jerome…. but his last name was not her Jerome’s but she went along with the chatter and held a conversation. She often felt in her heart that it was her Jerome, so she would keep on chatting and leisurely conversation with this unknown Jerome!
Vanessa had such a rough time getting into her writing and so she prayed and asked God to help her to keep on being strong and most of all remain focused in order to get this project done. She was determined to get this book done before they actually met. So…. what Vanessa did was she would go for walks and this would help her to think about what would next be put into her book and walking helped Vanessa to focus and also helped with her health too and kept her heart healthy, while it was all of the time broken waiting to see Jerome! The only thing was Vanessa often thought how was the book to end when she did not even know how it would really end in real life…so she prayed and asked God to give her the story and this is what she did.
Chapter 3…. Hopefully Vanessa prayed and asked God what she should do to make this book interesting and to keep her reader’s attention and He told her to use her music and poetry when she got stumped and this is what Vanessa did! So every time Vanessa got to point where she could not come up with more…she would read her poetry and/or music and include it as part of the story too to explain how she felt about Jerome. This is one of her poems she loved and hoped Jerome loved it too! HOPEFULLY you’re so far way yet you are here I can’t see your face But I can feel you near I can’t touch you But I hold you close No matter where you are you’re in my heart wherever I go Hopefully the miles between us will disappear soon
because all I want is to be with you Valerie J Brown 2015 Vanessa started having these strange dreams that were so astounding…. and only when she dreamed…. did she really get to see Jerome? She could get to see Jerome in her dreams but the weirdest part was that Jerome had to be asleep too! Evidently, Jerome was not sleeping too well, because Vanessa never hardly got to see him her in dreams. It had gotten to the point that Vanessa wanted to sleep all of the time and this how she would get to meet her love of her life but it seemed he may not be getting sleep so she could not see him in her sleep? So, what she did was prayed and asked God to touch Jerome from his head to his heart and help him to get rest as she was finally getting and hoped he would too. You see…. Jerome and Vanessa really missed one another and they both were… in reality having a hard time sleeping…. and it was only when they both slept that they could really see each other in their dreams. So Vanessa kept on praying and praying and asking God to help them both to sleep so they could at least see one another in their dreams while they sleep. To be continued……. SHARE THIS: