Life's Weaving

My grandparents. They were adorable. Inseparable.

I always loved to hear the story about how they met. It was a timeless classic that proved that irresponsible, irrational attraction can grow into love. And more than anything, it was proof to me, that true love lasts more than a lifetime, in fact, it lasts far beyond it.

They both came from humble beginnings. They never knew wealth. And they never really cared. They knew what made a person truly rich, and that, they both had. 

He was in the army. To this day, one of the most stout men I have ever seen. He is strong in every sense of the word. He had that German look to him. Tall, strong, confident. Until the army he had never been outside of Beckville, Texas. All he knew growing up was working in the cotton field for a few cents a day. The war was something new to him, something real and life changing. It made him realize what was important in life. It made him want to love.

She was living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With big bright eyes and long brown hair, she was watching her parents fall in love with America. Italy was all they had known. Call it fate, call it destiny, call it what you want, but on that one perfect day she decided to go to the park in Pittsburgh with a couple of her girlfriends. Her life would never be the same.

The soldiers pulled up on a bus, coming through that town, and they all gazed out of the windows at the people enjoying themselves in the park.

That is when he saw her.

She had her bluejeans rolled up and she was barefoot. She laughed, she ran, she had the most beautiful spirit he had ever seen. So he decided to get off the bus.

Without nerves, without fears, he walked right up to her and asked her where her shoes were. After minutes of talking and laughing with each other, they knew. He asked her - "are you coming to Texas with me, or not?" They joke that he never really asked her to marry him, but when she finally grabbed her shoes and headed home to pack... he counts that as a yes.

Both of my grandparents passed away in the last couple of years but today would have been their 68th wedding anniversary. And I miss them both more than I could ever explain on some silly blog.