THE entire audience at the Francis Gregory Neighborhood Library were spellbound as Lowell Vincent Muse told his story: It was many years ago; he was still a child, maybe five years old, when he first had the dream.
“I was a grown man in the dream. Me and a little boy were in a field filled with tall grass. We were side-by-side. We walked to the top of the hill and looked out,” Muse told the crowd who had come to the library for “Family Restoration: Celebrating Fathers, Empowering Parents—a Community Conversation, which was presented with a grant from The Holden Bequest. Muse was a conversation leader along with David Miller, Stuart Anderson and Tracie Robinson Ph.D.
“I had that dream every month from September 1955 until 1956,” said Muse. “In the last dream the boy turned around and I saw his face. That was the only time I had seen is face.
“Fast forward to 1976 and I meet my future wife and we fall in love,” continued Muse, adding that beginning in 1985 the two of them began making weekly donations of clothing and other items to St Ann’s Children’s Orphanage in Washington, DC.
“One week when we were there, we saw this one kid who may have been about three months old. He was sparkling and gregarious.
“The next Friday when we went, the nun asked us if we wanted to take him home for the weekend. She said she saw we were making a connection.
“It got so that every Friday, my wife and I would leave work and go to St. Ann’s to get him.
“It may have been in the middle of April; my wife was folding clothes and he was on the bed. He was laughing and I was looking at him. All of a sudden, I saw on his face the face of the little boy from my dream [all those years ago.] He was looking at me intently and smiling, as if to say yes you dummy, it’s me. “
“I had not told my wife or anyone about the dream I had. I pulled her aside and said, ‘I have to tell you something.’
“By then, we had already evolved into this family unit. We decided we were going to adopt him. That was June 3, 1985,” said Muse. “My son is 35 years old now. If I had to do it all over again, I would marry the same woman and adopt that same little boy.
“I can’t say I am a real active advocate for adoption, But I can say it’s the most wonderful thing one human being can do for another human being,” said Muse to resounding applause.
“I am living a charmed life.”
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