Love Eternal

Most of us spend our lives searching for that one special love, that one love that makes us feel complete.  Few of us ever manage to find it.  Those that don't will spend the rest of their life wondering if they missed it somewhere along the way.  Then there is that moment. that one moment when lightening strikes and the thunder rolls.  In that one moment we know, we just know that our life has changed...forever and never again will it ever be the same.  That moment for my Mother and Father-in-law came when they were just 15 years old.

From the very first time he saw her smiling face and looked into her bright beautiful eyes he knew that she was the love of his life and the only love he ever wanted in his life.  They knew from the very beginning that they never wanted to be apart, they would never let anyone or anything come between them...ever.  I can tell you that no one ever did, as the years passed and their age began to show you could see that in his eyes she was and she always would be that girl he met at 15.

They were married for twenty-four years by the time I met and married their oldest daughter Chris.  For 32 years I watched as their love for each grew.  During all that time I never heard either of them ever raise their voice to the other.  That's not saying their marriage was perfect or even easy for that matter, but their love for each other was.  They had their spats, of course, every marriage does.  My Father-in-law once told me that anyone who says they have a perfect marriage is living in a dream world or lying.  They made it a rule from the very beginning that they would never go to bed mad at each other, mad at other people maybe, but never at each other.

Recently my Mother-in-law passed away suddenly, they were together for fifty-six years.  They never complained about each other or about their lives together to anyone.  They loved each other deeply and just wanted to be together forever.  Not even death would be allowed to come between them and their need to be together.  They had It put into their wills that each of them would be cremated.  The survivor would care for the ashes of the first to pass until they to passed away.  Then the family would take them and place them together in the same grave.  Side by side they will go through eternity together. 

For the first week after her passing my Father-in-law was lost and confused, one of his four daughters remained with him 24 hours a day, everyday.  He couldn't sleep or  relax, he had to be reminded to eat.  Then his daughters went to the funeral home to pick up her ashes and bring her back to him.  When they brought her home and gave her to him he took her into his arms, held her close to him saying she's home now where she belongs.  That night he relaxed as if the world was lifted off his shoulders, for the first time since losing her,  he had his first sound and restful sleep.  Just knowing that she was back in their house, close by made a such big difference in him. 

My wife Chris and I went by to see him the day after she was brought home.  The house was quite, I have never known it to be that quite before.  My Mother-in-law always had the TV on up until they went to bed, now it sat there dark and silent.  He sat there just staring blankly at the chair where she had always sat.  Now that she was home, you could it in his face, he had realized that she is gone and would never again sit in her favorite chair.

When we arrived two of his daughters were already there cleaning things up for him  The other daughter arrive about an hour after we did.  I sat listening as he remembered his wife and they remembered their Mom.  She had bought him his first computer for Christmas, he was getting better but he was still learning to use it.  He had chosen a picture of Jesus as his wallpaper.  Every morning he would check his e-mail and face book.  The day after she had passed away he got up and checked his computer as usual.  There on his wallpaper next to Jesus was a picture of his wife.  His youngest daughter had spent the night and he showed it to her.  She immediately sent the wallpaper to her computer so she could print out the picture for him.  She remained there in the picture for the rest of that day, the next morning when checked, her picture was gone and only Jesus was there.  He told us that it was her way of letting him know she was with Jesus now and she was safe.  This, I believed, helped him more than anything else up to that point.

A month has passed now and we have convinced him to move into a new trailer park closer to two of his daughters.  Being in the same home that they lived in together for so long is hard on him.  Plus he will be close to someone he knows and can see everyday if he wishes.  He sees her smiling face every morning in the pictures on the wall, but in his mind he will always see that 15 year old girl. 
That young girl with the smile that always lit up her face and those beautiful eyes that forever stole his heart.  He knows that she is safe in the warm embrace of our Lord.  He knows that she will remain there until he once again sees her and can hold her once again in his own warm embrace.