Tuesday, December 25, 2012

The Old Couple


I awoke this morning thinking about an old couple I knew a long time ago.  This is a true story.

Once upon a time there was an old couple who met and married against the wishes of the man's family. They thought she was "not like mama" and truthfully she was not.  Every speck of dust was not dusted and sometimes things were not exactly in place, but she was a very unconventional old lady.  When she was in her 80's she learned to fly a plane.  She laughed and danced all the time and made him very happy and she was happy.  She didn't cook like mama either--what a shame.  But he was happier than he had ever been with her.

Once at a family reunion held in a public park, she got up on a picnic table and danced a jig.  The TV cameras were covering a story in the park and went over and got her picture and put it on the news, bringing great shame to the uptight rest of the family.

After they had been married a few years he was hospitalized and his family actually stood guard at the door and kept her from seeing him.  He was inside the room begging to see her and she was crying outside begging to go in.  He died never seeing her again.  She was not allowed at his funeral.  I don't know the details of why they managed to have control but they did.  When she was 100 she died lonely, with no one caring, in a nursing home.  

The moral of this story, if it has one, is to judge each person on their own merits.  I think when people meet like this couple that God sent them to each other and they should be accepted for what they are to each other as long as they are happy and these two people were very happy together.  They made each other laugh as never before and laughter is more important than being a good cook or a dust-nut.

I think of them a lot of times and sincerely hope his family was punished sseverely in their later years for the injustice they did to their father and his wife.  See, now you know that I have a touch of revenge in me, but I think all of us do to a degree.  

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