For these three excellent reasons I'm rather bitter at the whole "love" thing. However, I was thinking about my great-grandma and grandpa and their romance. Man, it was amazing to see.
So I found myself writing something about them. Have a read:
She wears his ring on a chain around her neck, and it gracefully falls near to her heart. Perhaps when she feels it tap her chest as she walks reminds her that he happened, and he is no longer alive. Perhaps when she hears the ring jingle when she bows her head, she remembers how he loved her and the sound of his laugh.
Romeo and Juliette. Considered to be an epic romance. I ask you, how is a week of love epic? How does it grow and change and become greater? It doesn't . No, it never stood the test of time and never experienced life. None of the epic couples in the past ever struck me as having a love that could endure all things. It seemed so fickle and unrealistic. Perhaps seeing my great-grandparents pushed my perception of romance far beyond any literary creation.
Their love stood the test of time. I witnessed an epic romance in these two bodies. But human bodies are fragile and wear down leaving behind a wake of mourners who deeply miss and love the soul encased within the body. Indeed, bodies must simply be skin and bones and muscle containing the essence of humanity. Preventing it to floating into the afterlife.
And so her soul remained. Her soul remained longing for him.
Between their children, but one fight could be recollected. Their children, each in their own way, recalled how in love their were with a sigh and a smile. "Man, they had the real deal." My firm belief is this: True love happens so rarely that when it happens it's as if the whole world must stop and take a peek. For a rare moment the toils of humanity cease and the Earth celebrates the most pure creation of God. For what on this whole planet is greater and more inspiring than love?
Sadly, time is too short for those who love deeply and 60 years fly by, paying no heed to lovers begging it to slow, leaving behind my grandmother lost and broken hearted.
"I just keep expecting him to walk back through that door. It just doesn't seem real." and she look at me with wise aged eyes. Eyes with no more tears left to cry and smiles at me.
Her smile says so many things:
I love you, I love him, I miss him, I'm brave, I'm weak, I'm trying, I'm lost, it cannot be true, I'll be okay. Don't go.
I wonder, does she still feel him? When she wakes at night, does she reach for his hand? Does she order a table for two? Does she call out his name, and hope for an answer? Does she feel him caress her hand? Did she feel her heart break?
Is it possible for a heart to shatter so completely, that there are no more tears left to cry? there are not enough words or even the right ones, to describe the absolute hopelessness, the total sorrow, the complete tragedy in her eyes. No longer does she speak his name, no longer do her eyes sparkle, her step is heavy.
He used to make her laugh. When she looked at him she never looked 82. She looked 16, staring at her first love. She giggled when he kissed her or reached for her hand. She intently did her eyes focus on him. His loving gaze, when it held hers, stopped their worlds and they only existed for each other. Together their souls were still newly-weds. When grandpa left her, age finally caught up to her. She looked tired as if she was half in a dream world, one where he could still hold her.
They loved each other more than any Nicholas Sparks novel could describe. I've discovered that their love cannot reside in past tense. They love each other with passion. For their love will be immortalized long after grandma joins grandpa. Their children saw their love and attempted to emulate it, setting an example for their children who, in turn, showed love to us. Though we witnessed the end of grandma and grandpa's physical love, we will never be rid of their example and the high expectations we gained from them.
Perhaps love is nothing but the legacy you leave behind you to future generations. Perhaps love is the memory of you and your spouse remembered with awe-filled respect and wonder.
At any rate, I've witnessed true love and it is something from which you walk away changed. God's most brilliant idea was bringing love to life through my great grandparents. And they were great.
The ring around my grandma's neck is powerful. He will always be close to her heart. She will always feel him as long as she breathes, faintly tapping at her heart. Someday her soul will escape the skin and bones surrounding her and she will go home to him. And we will miss her. But she will live for a much longer time ingrained in our memories of their love. A love greater than those concocted by Shakespeare or Jane Austen. The rare love they shared, moves us beyond words and inspires us more than any other.
God's greatest invention was shown to me in raw form and it's a memory that will follow me until I die. Perhaps, I'll find what they had, but if not, I'll have seen true love and have been blessed beyond all measure.
