Carlene and Wes Bickers |
There are a lot of things in which I do not believe. There are many things about which I am probably a bit too cynical.
True love, however, is not one of those things.
I believe in it. Absolutely and completely.
And, it's important to note, I do not believe in true love as something that exists in a trouble-free bubble, a place where nothing ever goes wrong, where arguments never happen, where only blissful happiness exists.
I know that this kind of love is about loving someone truly and deeply through times that are wonderful and times that are difficult. This is what my grandparents did. Even when life was not simple or easy, they loved one another. They loved their children. They loved their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren. For six decades, they remained true to that. They were kind to one another and they were kind to us.
They gave us so much love that it lives on in all of us to this day.
They began as sweethearts in the 1940s, two people younger than my own son is today. On their 50th wedding anniversary, they told a story about one of their first dates. At the end of the evening, my granddad had just enough money for their bus fare back home or a bag of peanuts they could share on the long walk home. My grandma said, "Let's get the peanuts."
They were sweethearts even after my grandma's death in 2008, until the day my granddad passed away in 2010.
For all of us who love them and miss them so, they are sweethearts still.
Maybe I think Valentine's Day is silly and commercialized, a marketing strategy for jewelry stores and florists and Hallmark.
But do I believe in love?
You're damn right I do.
For more, go here:
The Luckiest: A Love Story
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