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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Inspirational
- Subject: Aging / Maturity
- Published: 04/07/2022
May and I got married December 22, 1975. It was a busy year, I had been working at Tim’s tires and she was finishing her senior year of high school. I had met her my senior year in the cafeteria where we argued over who got the last piece of cherry pie. She was beautiful and of course she won.
Now that old saying I guess is true, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. May was not a popular girl, not a cheerleader, no special sports ability. She was a daughter to a local Pastor and did not wear the short skirts or dresses that affords a guy with a glimpse of what many thought was the holy land.
Yet under the long dress's and skirts and under loose blouses her small and yet good figure was evident. She never cursed or went to any of the parties. She was mostly seen hanging around other church girls, and as far as I know had never had a real date.
Yet when I stood looking at her smile and heard her laugh, and saw the fire in her eyes. Well it changed me, I couldn’t get her off my mind. So a week later I caught up with her in the hall and asked if she would go to the drive-in with me.
She grinned and said, no, but if you want to come to our church Sunday morning you can sit with me. If you promise not to keep all the pie to yourself I expect you could come home with us for dinner.
Sunday morning dressed in my best clothes I was at that church. I felt out of place, did not know how to act or what the process was. See I was not from a church going family, not that I didn’t believe in God, I just didn’t know much about him and never wanted too.
I sure was glad May was there to guide me through it, and when she sung those hymns besides me, well I discovered I loved the harmony of those songs. Not to mention her voice was very good and so was her momma’s.
Dinner was great, first time I ever had to wait on a prayer before eating. I don’t know if all that praying effected the food or not but that was the finest fried chicken I ever had. Over the up coming many dinners I am persuaded the prayers must effect the food because that was the best tasting food I have had.
We would go on walks, I sit and heard sermons or teaching as May called it from her Dad while she did dishes. We never went to the drive-in, or any fancy restaurant. I made a trip to the altar one Sunday when something got a hold of my heart.
So I graduated and went to work and she finished school and we, ok, her and her momma planned a wedding, the crowd I hung out with changed too. Another old saying that fits, birds of a feather flock together. I think my father in law hoped I would get the calling to be a Bible thumper, I didn’t.
Once married we went to a cheap motel and the wedding night was not a disappointment. I wondered laying their before sleeping if she was the last of the virgins? Next day we headed to a small house in Farmington. We had spent months looking for it, and at last a church goer told us about this one. Rent was cheap and it was small, but clean.
May planted flowers and found used furniture and fixed things up, then she found a job. May was hired to work as a filing clerk for the largest local law firm, Manon, Mason and Morrison. She loved the job and within a year was in training to become a paralegal. Me I loved my simple job of selling tires.
They say no marriage was made in heaven but ours was close. We enjoyed each other and though a simple life it was good from the bedroom to the garden and yard work. Some say a marriage isn’t substantial until the face and overcome a tragedy.
Our tragedy came in 1980 and it hit us both very hard, we suffered in our own ways but together. One thing we both understood is trust, and trust is the ability to tell each other everything with our fear. For a church girl May had some rather kinky fantasies that I can’t even share with you. She said, she did not realize what a maniac she was married too about me, while laughing.
Yet tragedy steals the laugh, robs us of our smiles, seeks to destroy all we hold dear. I expect tragedy has been the root cause of many marriages failures. If anything can almost kill and paralyze our soul it is a tragedy. It can challenge us and our faith, love, hopes and dreams, it can divide when all other things fail.
We stood at the airport hugging and giving our goodbyes to Mays folks. They were taking their first airplane trip to a missions work in the Philippines. It was tears of joy for them May wiped from her cheeks.
Three weeks later we took a day off work and drove to Lambert Airport in St. Louis, Missouri. As we stood watching planes come in May would bounce up and down like a kid, is it them? I would say not yet. We watched as I said, it should be their flight now, it should be a big plane.
We stood watching a quiet excitement had taken us to our own thoughts. We watched as the planes wheels hit the runway. We watched as a explosion at what looked to be a wheel, the planes wing hit the ground, the other side went up and the wing on the ground folded, the plane was flipped over and flames, so high and bright.
At first silence in the seating area as we stared, than the explosion. That’s when the screaming started, who knows what was said, what words if any came out. There we stood in the middle of a nightmare. Someone came up and asked if we were expecting people on the flight? I think I nodded yes and somebody led us to a big holding room.
It was awful, we all knew without being told our loved ones were gone. At last we were taken to a hotel and the next morning we gathered and listened as the names were read off. The trip home was silent except for the sounds of crying.
After the funeral two weeks later we tried to pick up our life’s and move on. How long would it take to heal, I don’t think you ever really heal. I expect you just have to find the way to put it a box in your brain and lock it away, or go insane.
You try not to doubt God and find a way to understand, his will be done. For May I think finding a way to hold to her faith and accept this tragedy became a weight so heavy it crushed her spirit. I tried to say the right things, like, May what would your father conciliatory words be to church family? That only ended with her curled in a ball on the floor crying.
May lost her smile and lost her laugh, the fire had gone out in her eyes. She barely ate and no tv or radio, no working in her flower garden. She would hold me and cry and no words were often spoken. When not at work, she sit in her chair by the window, Bible in hand, she would study it like she studied law books and cases.
When the Two hundred thousand dollar check with a letter from the airline came, she just handed it to me, not a word. I just put it into bank and when I told her she just sit down and picked up her Bible.
Perhaps you think our marriage was all but over, I was doing the cleaning and cooking and intimate relationships were now non existent. Conversation was short and few words. No it wasn’t over I too suffered and more important, she was my life. My love for her no matter how things went, I would be by Mays side.
A year went by and I had just dropped into a routine of this is how it is. Yet, I won’t ever forget it, on December 22, 1987 something happened beyond my imagination.
May had been studying her Bible, got up and put on her coat, she said as she opened the door, I will be back. She walked out and I could not guess what was on her mind.
A hour later the door burst open and there was May, her face aglow, fire in her eyes, he smile made her look like it was our wedding day all over. In her hand she carried a small evergreen tree. She was excited and not telling me what was going on, I just watched in amazement.
She found a flower pot in the hall closet, dumped out several of her once favored house plants. She planted that tree and sit it in front of the window.
As tears flowed down her face I heard her speak. Was it to me, was it to God, was it to her momma and Poppa or was it to all of us or no one?
"I understand that to have life in this world is just so we can create new life. A flower drops it seed often carried by the birds to new places. A fruit tree drops if fruit and the fruit dies but the seed grows to make more fruit trees.
The kingdom the Bible teaches us to prepare for is not here. The only way to get to it is through deaths door. Momma and Poppa you so love God and worked so hard and so long to get to his kingdom.
Forgive me for being so sick and hurt in my soul when I should have rejoiced. I understand now, you are where you always wanted to be, I love you both, I love you Heavenly Father, and I love my husband. I will see you in person in due time, just watch over me till then."
That night a fire was built in our hearts that has never grown cold. We spent the night making up for lost time, and nine moths later our own little girl was born.
Now I am old, it is 2022 and my daughters and sons and a half dozen grandkids play at me feet. May walked through the door to that kingdom last year, as cancer was the slow climb to reach it. Doctors say I won’t be long till I meet her, heart you know is failing.
By the window is a young evergreen tree in the same pot May used so many years ago. In the bank is all that money and I guess some interest. My grand-baby is climbing in my lap, so as all stories go there comes a ending…. Yet see, only my writing ends, my story like May and like her parents, well it goes on, the never ending story.
Such is your life as well, I think a wise old man wrote shortly before his death: Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away;
The Evergreen Tree(Rich Puckett)
May and I got married December 22, 1975. It was a busy year, I had been working at Tim’s tires and she was finishing her senior year of high school. I had met her my senior year in the cafeteria where we argued over who got the last piece of cherry pie. She was beautiful and of course she won.
Now that old saying I guess is true, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. May was not a popular girl, not a cheerleader, no special sports ability. She was a daughter to a local Pastor and did not wear the short skirts or dresses that affords a guy with a glimpse of what many thought was the holy land.
Yet under the long dress's and skirts and under loose blouses her small and yet good figure was evident. She never cursed or went to any of the parties. She was mostly seen hanging around other church girls, and as far as I know had never had a real date.
Yet when I stood looking at her smile and heard her laugh, and saw the fire in her eyes. Well it changed me, I couldn’t get her off my mind. So a week later I caught up with her in the hall and asked if she would go to the drive-in with me.
She grinned and said, no, but if you want to come to our church Sunday morning you can sit with me. If you promise not to keep all the pie to yourself I expect you could come home with us for dinner.
Sunday morning dressed in my best clothes I was at that church. I felt out of place, did not know how to act or what the process was. See I was not from a church going family, not that I didn’t believe in God, I just didn’t know much about him and never wanted too.
I sure was glad May was there to guide me through it, and when she sung those hymns besides me, well I discovered I loved the harmony of those songs. Not to mention her voice was very good and so was her momma’s.
Dinner was great, first time I ever had to wait on a prayer before eating. I don’t know if all that praying effected the food or not but that was the finest fried chicken I ever had. Over the up coming many dinners I am persuaded the prayers must effect the food because that was the best tasting food I have had.
We would go on walks, I sit and heard sermons or teaching as May called it from her Dad while she did dishes. We never went to the drive-in, or any fancy restaurant. I made a trip to the altar one Sunday when something got a hold of my heart.
So I graduated and went to work and she finished school and we, ok, her and her momma planned a wedding, the crowd I hung out with changed too. Another old saying that fits, birds of a feather flock together. I think my father in law hoped I would get the calling to be a Bible thumper, I didn’t.
Once married we went to a cheap motel and the wedding night was not a disappointment. I wondered laying their before sleeping if she was the last of the virgins? Next day we headed to a small house in Farmington. We had spent months looking for it, and at last a church goer told us about this one. Rent was cheap and it was small, but clean.
May planted flowers and found used furniture and fixed things up, then she found a job. May was hired to work as a filing clerk for the largest local law firm, Manon, Mason and Morrison. She loved the job and within a year was in training to become a paralegal. Me I loved my simple job of selling tires.
They say no marriage was made in heaven but ours was close. We enjoyed each other and though a simple life it was good from the bedroom to the garden and yard work. Some say a marriage isn’t substantial until the face and overcome a tragedy.
Our tragedy came in 1980 and it hit us both very hard, we suffered in our own ways but together. One thing we both understood is trust, and trust is the ability to tell each other everything with our fear. For a church girl May had some rather kinky fantasies that I can’t even share with you. She said, she did not realize what a maniac she was married too about me, while laughing.
Yet tragedy steals the laugh, robs us of our smiles, seeks to destroy all we hold dear. I expect tragedy has been the root cause of many marriages failures. If anything can almost kill and paralyze our soul it is a tragedy. It can challenge us and our faith, love, hopes and dreams, it can divide when all other things fail.
We stood at the airport hugging and giving our goodbyes to Mays folks. They were taking their first airplane trip to a missions work in the Philippines. It was tears of joy for them May wiped from her cheeks.
Three weeks later we took a day off work and drove to Lambert Airport in St. Louis, Missouri. As we stood watching planes come in May would bounce up and down like a kid, is it them? I would say not yet. We watched as I said, it should be their flight now, it should be a big plane.
We stood watching a quiet excitement had taken us to our own thoughts. We watched as the planes wheels hit the runway. We watched as a explosion at what looked to be a wheel, the planes wing hit the ground, the other side went up and the wing on the ground folded, the plane was flipped over and flames, so high and bright.
At first silence in the seating area as we stared, than the explosion. That’s when the screaming started, who knows what was said, what words if any came out. There we stood in the middle of a nightmare. Someone came up and asked if we were expecting people on the flight? I think I nodded yes and somebody led us to a big holding room.
It was awful, we all knew without being told our loved ones were gone. At last we were taken to a hotel and the next morning we gathered and listened as the names were read off. The trip home was silent except for the sounds of crying.
After the funeral two weeks later we tried to pick up our life’s and move on. How long would it take to heal, I don’t think you ever really heal. I expect you just have to find the way to put it a box in your brain and lock it away, or go insane.
You try not to doubt God and find a way to understand, his will be done. For May I think finding a way to hold to her faith and accept this tragedy became a weight so heavy it crushed her spirit. I tried to say the right things, like, May what would your father conciliatory words be to church family? That only ended with her curled in a ball on the floor crying.
May lost her smile and lost her laugh, the fire had gone out in her eyes. She barely ate and no tv or radio, no working in her flower garden. She would hold me and cry and no words were often spoken. When not at work, she sit in her chair by the window, Bible in hand, she would study it like she studied law books and cases.
When the Two hundred thousand dollar check with a letter from the airline came, she just handed it to me, not a word. I just put it into bank and when I told her she just sit down and picked up her Bible.
Perhaps you think our marriage was all but over, I was doing the cleaning and cooking and intimate relationships were now non existent. Conversation was short and few words. No it wasn’t over I too suffered and more important, she was my life. My love for her no matter how things went, I would be by Mays side.
A year went by and I had just dropped into a routine of this is how it is. Yet, I won’t ever forget it, on December 22, 1987 something happened beyond my imagination.
May had been studying her Bible, got up and put on her coat, she said as she opened the door, I will be back. She walked out and I could not guess what was on her mind.
A hour later the door burst open and there was May, her face aglow, fire in her eyes, he smile made her look like it was our wedding day all over. In her hand she carried a small evergreen tree. She was excited and not telling me what was going on, I just watched in amazement.
She found a flower pot in the hall closet, dumped out several of her once favored house plants. She planted that tree and sit it in front of the window.
As tears flowed down her face I heard her speak. Was it to me, was it to God, was it to her momma and Poppa or was it to all of us or no one?
"I understand that to have life in this world is just so we can create new life. A flower drops it seed often carried by the birds to new places. A fruit tree drops if fruit and the fruit dies but the seed grows to make more fruit trees.
The kingdom the Bible teaches us to prepare for is not here. The only way to get to it is through deaths door. Momma and Poppa you so love God and worked so hard and so long to get to his kingdom.
Forgive me for being so sick and hurt in my soul when I should have rejoiced. I understand now, you are where you always wanted to be, I love you both, I love you Heavenly Father, and I love my husband. I will see you in person in due time, just watch over me till then."
That night a fire was built in our hearts that has never grown cold. We spent the night making up for lost time, and nine moths later our own little girl was born.
Now I am old, it is 2022 and my daughters and sons and a half dozen grandkids play at me feet. May walked through the door to that kingdom last year, as cancer was the slow climb to reach it. Doctors say I won’t be long till I meet her, heart you know is failing.
By the window is a young evergreen tree in the same pot May used so many years ago. In the bank is all that money and I guess some interest. My grand-baby is climbing in my lap, so as all stories go there comes a ending…. Yet see, only my writing ends, my story like May and like her parents, well it goes on, the never ending story.
Such is your life as well, I think a wise old man wrote shortly before his death: Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away;
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