The sweetness of love

Yesterday the GAP gift card and the grocery bag I won in Lacey's contest came! I can't wait to go shopping this weekend. :-) Thanks again lady!! And if you are not reading her blog, clicky-clicky on the link people!!

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Yesterday my coworker and I met a wonderful old woman. We had to stop by her house and immediately, you could tell that she was a welcoming, but lonely person. Our visit was supposed to be all business, but the conversation always lead to her personal stories.

Anyway, this woman’s husband died about a year and a half ago. They were married 66 years and she still talked about her husband as if he was still alive. She was proud of his paintings throughout the house, the work that he did on the house all by himself, his tenor voice, and their overall life together.

At one point she was telling us the story of her husband becoming ill. Because he was still joking around that day, she had no idea that he was as sick as he was. In the early morning hours of the day her husband died, she had to help him to the bathroom. After getting him back into bed, she said, “I love you.” Right back to her he said, “I love you more.”

Those were the last words that she heard from her husband as when she woke up the next morning, he had passed. As she told us this story, I almost started crying. The story had nothing to do with the work that we were there for, but it was such a sweet story.

First off, I think that it is touching that those were his last words to her. What a cute thing to say after 66 years of marriage. After his death, I guess her children found some sort of sign that says “I love you more” on it so that she could put it up at her house. You always hear stories of how couples or families get in fights, one person dies, and then the other is left with the guilt of the last conversation being a fight. But not with this couple.

Secondly, with my impending marriage, I find stories like these heartening. Movies and tv shows like to portray people getting bored of their spouse after a few years of marriage and yet you can find people that have been married for so long and still love to be together. While CP and I will probably not make it 66 years together considering that both of us are early 30s, we will hopefully have a long and happy marriage.

Maybe the sweetness of the love between this woman and her deceased husband is not coming through in my telling of the story. Maybe you had to be there. But yesterday, I spent the rest of the day feeling bad for the woman and her grief but also happy that she was able to have such an amazing relationship.