“He was my first love,” she said with a faraway look in her eyes. The silence grew, lengthened, as I waited and wondered. Her fingers played with the delicate chain she wore around her neck. I thought she’d forgotten me.
She smiled a half-smile as she finally turned to me. “That was fifty years ago. He always held a special place deep in my heart,” she paused again, quiet, reflecting, still. Reliving a past I could not fathom and dare not intrude upon even if I could.
“Our parents said we were too young,” she continued, “too young to know what love is. But we knew, we both knew. I remember … It was such a tender love, almost, well, spiritual. We were so young, but we knew what love is,” her voice trailed off once again as she re-entered that distant past and tears glinted in her eyes.
And I, a fool, did not know what to say or what to do to comfort her. I, in turn, was much too young to understand. I had no knowledge of such love. It astounded and confounded me.
I was too young at that time. But now the years have tumbled by and I am now at that age that she was then. And still, I wonder at a love held close for so long. So long. A love that never died.
Reblogged this on LIVING THE DREAM.
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You honor me – and make me feel very humble all at the same time – thank you!
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Hi Carol! I’m glad to have found your blogs, and I enjoy reading your posts.
I nominated you for the Sunshine Blogger Award.
https://mrswayfarer.com/2019/06/01/sunshine-blogger-award-nomination/
Congratulations and I look forward to more of your posts!
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How very kind of you, thank you!
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Some parents say “you’re too young to know what love is”, but can never explain what love is from their own knowledge. Love and life (hand in hand) has different vocations for different people. Who should guide us?
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Good question. I try to be guided by the Divine Creator – when I go off on my own things do not work out as well. 🙂
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What a world of thoughts well up upon reading this post! When I married Peggy, almost 51 years ago I was young enough that in Wisconsin I had to be signed for by a parent in order to marry. I proposed to my soon-to-be wife in a letter before we ever went on a real date. I was so indirect about my proposal that she told the letter to her BFF and asked her what “he” was saying, and answered back using my exact words in case she had misunderstood my intent. We were married a scant 3 months later. And we are still in love and best friends. “Too young.” How I hate those words, and how I hate the idea of other people deciding for others what is right, or proper, or permissible.
Perhaps that’s the reason I have such strong feelings about abortion. I have never had any experience of being in a abortion-dilemma-situation but the idea of others deciding for anyone what’s right for them, or their body, infuriates me.
Still… relationships take hard work on both sides. And a lot of that work is dependent upon whether we make a good choice in the first place. Using the wrong criteria for our life choices can get us into a pot-full-of-trouble. And choices do carry consequences. sigh.
good post. 🙂
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I thank you for your kind words and for reading. Love is love is love – no matter the age. I loved hearing about your relationship with your wife – that is an amazing story. While there are people forced into marriage at a very young age – which is wrong in my view, on the other side of the coin and people like you who prove the term “puppy love” so wrong.
It warms my heart to read your story and I congratulate you and your wife much continued happiness – 51 years is quite an achievement!
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