Touching story...
Goes to show how our egos, afraid of rejection, come up with multilayered narratives to avoid the possibility of failure. I'm pretty sure everyone knows this feeling, and the terrible hollowness that follows, almost like a part of us just died.
Eastern spirituality has an interesting take on this - first we must learn to differentiate between what we need and what we want, as it's usually not the same thing. Then we are free to ask the world for what it is that we need. It will materialise in one way or another - this happens naturally. If it doesn't, we should pay attention to what happens instead. It symbolises the inner obstacle we must remove to have that need met.

I understand that in your case, the need for the board hasn't been identified until it was too late. So maybe your real takeaway from this situation was to become more attentive, so you don't forget peoples faces as easily? And the lack of the board was the price to illustrate that clearly?
Of course, I don't know that, and am just toying with the concept...