The greatest love story I know…
This is my grandpa and grandma.
When I was very small I spent a great deal of time with them due to my older brother being so ill.
There were so many nights that I’d have my grandma brush my hair and tell me about the time when she and grandpa met.
Grandma was working in an old time fountain shop when a sailor walked in off the street one day. There was no conversation exchanged other than the typical, ordering, paying and leaving. When grandpa walked out the door my grandmother turned to her friend and said, “That’s the man I am going to marry.”
Later that day grandma went and broke off her existing engagement and waited a very long 6 months or so till that sailor would come back in town.
He did and they dated a very short time and married. They were married 54 years when grandpa passed away. Prior to this he had survived 7 heart attacks and even World War II. They had five children including my mother.
The night grandpa passed away I was able to be there. I stood back in the corner of his hospital room feeling almost as if the space around grandpa’s bed was sacred space and should not be disturbed.
I heard my grandma and grandpa whispering to each other a bit and then I heard grandma lean over and say, “it’s ok, you can go now.” And within a couple of minutes of my grandmother giving him her blessing and a kiss on the cheek - my grandfather was gone.
This was a man that held onto the woman he loved even through his own pain. He could not and would not leave her until she assured him she would be ok. He was always so concerned that some relatives would place my grandmother in a nursing home and take all she had left. Grandpa was an intuitive man because that’s exactly what did happen.
Today my grandmother lives in a nursing home dying a slow, painful and very lonely death. She doesn’t remember much, which is so sad - when she can’t remember the greatest love story I have ever known.
Perhaps that was one of the biggest challenges I faced when I was single and dating. I had always had the perfect love, the perfect marriage - the perfect husband to compare everyone to.
The one comfort I have in the man I chose to marry is that he was one that both grandma and grandpa both approved of.
In honor of my grandparents and the inspiration they were to me and so many who many be hoping for a love that powerful…I wanted to share the tale of Frank and Carrie.
Tags: happily_married, love_at_first_sight, love_story, real_storiesRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Dating in General
0 opinions for The greatest love story I know…
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: