Flower Festival

Love, North Georgia Perfect Peace

By Anna DeStefano Photos By Christa Rene Photography

Life’s best gifts can be the ones we least expect.

When you’ve known someone for years, through bright highs and deep lows, and then you watch a miracle bloom for your friend… Well, for a writer, that’s the good stuff. Which means I’m back, sharing another North Georgia love story that I trust will bring a smile to your heart, the same as it did mine. Greg Peters is active in much of our community’s day-to-day. Around these parts, it’s hard to find a person who doesn’t know him. Whenever my husband and I are on the hunt for something or someone in particular and we need a trusted recommendation, “We should ask Greg,” comes up nearly every time. Not just because of who he knows. But because of how much he cares about people, and the wellbeing of this beautiful area we call home.

My first introduction to Greg was through the Golden Memories Auction Company, which closed its doors in Mountain City not too long ago. Over the years, I’ve gotten to know him better, as well as his kids. Greg’s tight-knit family helped inspire the small-town and several of the characters in my next novel. And I was blessed to have met his first wife, Susanna, before she left this world in October 2019, far too early for those who loved her. Which is why, when my husband and I touched base with Greg six months or so ago, it came as a bit of a surprise when he said he had a special lady to introduce us to when we stopped by. We’d gotten in the habit of meeting with Greg from time-to-time, either for lunch somewhere or for breakfast at the Rusty Bike, to talk about real estate or just to catch up. 2020 and pre-covid-2021 had been an active, keeping-busy season for him. Work and family and community commitments kept him content, filling days that might otherwise have been lonely. But there were also the hours at night after he returned home, he later told me. And the quietness he’d once shared with a person who loved and knew him better than all others. Still, he wasn’t looking for a new relationship. It was too early. And he was too busy.

That is, until a trusted friend spoke of a beautiful lady from Greenville in similar circumstances, who might be a perfect match for Greg. Susan Keith’s beloved husband had died three-and-a-half years before. She, too, kept busy with work and an active family. She didn’t want another long-term commitment-of-the-heart. Losing her spouse after a prolonged illness had been difficult. She had all the time in the world now to travel and love on her girls and grandkids. Why rock the boat?

“It’s funny, how God’s gifts can hit you from out of nowhere,” Susan would say to me, after Greg introduced us and I knew I had to tell their story. “One minute you’re on a blind date that you’re certain won’t amount to much. The next, everything you think is “enough” falls away, and your world shows you exactly what you hadn’t realized you’d been missing…”

Susan and Greg described their first date to me: finding someone with a beautiful heart that seemed to fit, in every way that mattered; the sense that God was driving their instant connection; how each thing they had in common seemed to build on the last, until their “quick” lunch turned into three hours. She was in between trips. He was equally tied up with his own life. But suddenly, they found themselves in the middle of something they couldn’t deny. So, they made time to meet again. It was just right, when they were together, the way they felt the same about family and faith, community, relationships, and life in general. Greg, who never has trouble sleeping, tossed and turned for a week. When they were apart, he longed to see her again. There was a basic understanding there; a bedrock connection that kept drawing him back. Of course, they were worried about how deeply they were starting to care for each other. Yet there was also a sense of peace. “For God has not given us the spirit of fear…” (2 Timothy 1:7), was the scripture they mentioned as we talked about those early weeks. This was quite possibly the greatest gift of their new lives. Were they ready to receive it?

Not overthinking things would be key. Considering a serious relationship so quickly was out of character for them. Family and friends must have thought so, too. Something almost too good was crashing over their lives. It would have been easy to talk themselves into not trusting it.

Susan, who doesn’t typically journal, began writing things down so she could process her thoughts. Silly tidbits at first: like how they both liked hamburgers with only ketchup on them; or that she eats cottage cheese with her fruit, the same as Greg’s mother had. Reading back through the memories, she can also see how their time together became more meaningful by the visit. After their third date, she drove away in tears, deeply moved, but not certain she was ready for more.