Posted on 12/16/2009 11:05:50 AM PST by BluesDuke
My parents were married in 1945, just after Dad was discharged from the Army. They met when he threw his name and address out the back of a truck as it passed through a small Tennessee town in 1942. Dad passed away three years ago last September, just one month shy of their 61st wedding anniversary. Mom followed him to heaven three months later.
A bad marriage, divorce, custody battles and letting go is hell .....but losing a spouse you love seems worse.
They were married 64 years. Lived through the Great Depression and even raised a couple of his brothers. Most of the time you couldn't tell they loved each other but they loved to argue! One would say the sky is blue and the other would say it was green just to argue.
Toward the end of his life Grandpa got dementia and would always ask for Grandma. He needed to know where she was and how she was doing. She would come in to his room and everything was okay. The day he died he was actually very lucid. He made me promise I would take care of Grandma because he was worried that she would be alone and needed someone to watch over her.
After Grandpa died Grandma didnt know what to do with herself. She constantly worried about money and the car and the house and the kids on and on. Even though Grandpa had left her more money than she could spend if she tried. Almost 30 days later she commented that she couldn't do this without Grandpa and really missed him. She died that night in her sleep. I guess she gave up and couldn't go on.
That's when I realized that looks can be deceiving and they truly did love each other. Then I thought back and my Grandfather was home every day, they took vacations together and went everywhere together. In their entire life I don't remember seeing one without the other. They probably never spent more than a few days apart.
But boy did they love to argue!!!
OMG-your post put me over from tears to sobs.
What Love means to a 4-8 year old . .
Slow down for three minutes to read this. It is so worth it. A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds ,
'What does love mean?'
The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined.
'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time , even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.'
Rebecca- age 8
'When someone loves you , the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth..'
Billy - age 4
'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'
Karl - age 5
'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'
Chrissy - age 6
'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'
Terri - age 4
'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him , to make sure the taste is OK.'
Danny - age 7
'Love is when you kiss all the time.. Then when you get tired of kissing , you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss'
Emily - age 8
'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'
Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)
'If you want to learn to love better , you should start with a friend who you hate , '
Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)
'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt , then he wears it everyday.'
Noelle - age 7
'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'
Tommy - age 6
'During my piano recital , I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.'
Cindy - age 8
'My mommy loves me more than anybody You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.'
Clare - age 6
'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.'
Elaine-age 5
'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.'
Chris - age 7
'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.'
Mary Ann - age 4
'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'
Lauren - age 4
'When you love somebody , your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' (what an image)
Karen - age 7
'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.'
Mark - age 6
'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.'
Jessica - age 8
And the final one:
The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.
Upon seeing the man cry , the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard , climbed onto his lap , and just sat there.
When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor , the little boy said ,
'Nothing , I just helped him cry'
When there is nothing left but God , that is when you find out that God is all you need. Take 60 seconds and give this a shot! All you do is simply say the following small prayer for the person who sent you this.
Heavenly Father , please bless all my friends in whatever it is that You know they may be needing this day! And may their life be full of Your peace, prosperity and power as he/she seeks to have a closer relationship with You. Amen.
God Bless !
Three weeks would be a long term relationship for you wouldn’t it, Laz? Husband and I have been together 44 years..married 43 years. If he died, I would want to go a moment later. I could not imagine being on this earth without him. I have been with him my whole adult life..I was a baby child of course when we met...:-) ...19...he finished raising me. He is my favorite person in the world. Always will be.
You usually bug me Laz, but that cracked me up.
“May you live a thousand years...
And may I live a thousand years...
Minus a day...
So I would have never known...
That you had passed away.”
Rest in Peace
Bless their harts.
I was holding up pretty good until you posted that. Then I had a monitor problem.
sad and amazing
Me, too. He died of a broken heart. It's a real thing.
OMG I don’t even know these people and I’m tearing up. I adore my husband as well and can’t imagine being without him. We also hold hands when we are walking together....
It sounds as though the adoration is mutual. And, immune to the vicissitudes of life and human foolery. Which testifies to your strength together, a strength I wish a lot of people had.
Including and especially myself; I learned the hard way what happens when you let anything or anyone interfere with that kind of love, and what it exposes, sadly enough, about how incomplete or artificial love may prove to have been at that point.
I underwent a deep soul search about a year and a half ago after I went through my third divorce. And I swore, if God gave me one more chance to find love---real love, as opposed to what I merely thought was real love (it couldn't have been, I came to know, if we could have been that buffeted by what prove to have been mere artificialities, transient things, or other people looking and, alas, succeeding in tearing it down)---I'd do everything it was within my power to do to make sure nothing and no one could get in the way of what was really important.
If I'd known the story of this couple at that time, the soul search would have been easier---here was as textbook a case as you could find of two people who knew what was the most important thing in life and determined not to let anything or anyone stand in its way. They seem to have known that, no matter your work or profession, no matter your income or lack thereof, there was a time every day to put the damn world away and remember what brought you together in the first place.
I learned the hard way what they knew going in. And I'm reaping the benefit of that education even as I write. It took me only five years less of life than this couple had of marriage to learn. And I'm one of the lucky ones. Some of us don't learn no matter how long we live.
Very touching. Happy anniversary to my parents who just celebrated 57 years last month. Too few of these people left.
My maternal grandparents had that many years together, too. Personally, I never knew a more devoted or loving couple than them. Grandma died thirteen years after Grandpa. She remained her singular self in the interim but I know in my gut something was missing without him.
I only hope I could find somebody like that.
Andy Warhol, of all people, once said that when you stop looking for what you want the most, it will find you.
You may well have that in store for you.
True love does still exist, and it does last forever.
That is what I have reason to believe again myself.
Sad for the family, but, doesn’t sound like a bad way to go to me. I don’t really want to have to grieve my wife’s passing.
Murder/Suicide?
Thus far, no apparent such evidence.
Thank God.
I'm glad they went together...a broken heart isn't any fun.
If you believe the account given by one of their daughters, that seems precisely what this wife was trying to say at the gates of Eden.
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