Finding True Love at 80 or Happy Endings Are Not Just For The Young!

During the 1970's, this photograph was taken in my aunt's dining room at my maternal grandmother's wedding reception.  Lovingly known to everyone who knew her as "Granny," she was photographed here feeding wedding cake to her very own Prince Charming. This was a second marriage for the bride and the groom, both having been married and widowed, and while the couple was fast approaching 80, age proved no impediment to true love. The smile seen that day on Granny's face remained there throughout their thirteen years of marriage. No one deserved happiness more than these two did, and they had it in spades!  

But this was not the first time these two were in love.  With a relationship hearkening back to the first part of the twentieth century, Granny was engaged to this gentleman once before as he proposed to her and she accepted when they were both very young. Shortly after the engagement was announced, the young swain moved away to find work, promising to return and marry Granny when he had made enough money.  Unfortunately, he remained gone a little too long for an anxious young girl, who also happened to be a bit of a flirt as evidenced by the photograph below.  One look at that pose with the palmetto fan tells us a lot about what we need to know...

 

Granny (second from left with her palmetto fan) and Siblings

Enter a tall, handsome newcomer and friend of her elder brother's who happened to be the volunteer who took the snapshot above.  Now, do you see T-R-O-U-B-L-E brewing?

Add to that the fact that my great grandmother found Granny's fiancee a bit "fast" as evidenced by the fact that he played the harmonica and knew all the latest dance steps, and you see clearly where this is headed.

To say the jilted suitor was crestfallen when Granny threw him over after falling helplessly in love with and marrying my grandfather is an understatement, but after some time passed, her former fiancee did find love and was happily married for many years.  Each of the couples had a family of two daughters and a son, and their paths rarely crossed due to the distance in miles.

The First World War came and went along with the flappers, the Great Depression, and World War II.  Just as life started to take on some sense of normality, my grandfather died unexpectedly from a coronary thrombosis following emergency surgery. My grandmother was only in her forties. Not long after Granddaddy's death, the suitors began lining up for my grandmother's hand, but she turned them all down flat.  Granny was determined not to compromise her standards or her heart and refused to marry for anything but love.  Instead, she chose to sell her car and some of her possessions, move into a cottage, and become the mother, grandmother, and friend not only to her own loved ones, but to the community at large.  Tales of her kindnesses to others were legend. I know because people were always sharing them with us and still do.

About thirty-five years after my grandfather died, Granny's former fiancee's wife died, too. His daughter in law told us that the family did not know what to do with him.  He was so depressed that she would find him moping on her doorstep at mealtime, much like a little lost puppy. They worried that he would grieve himself to death.  Enter my great uncle who encouraged his old friend to call Granny.  When the former flame finally did contact her, Granny said the conversation went something like this:

"My dear, do you think we might pick up where we left off?"

"I certainly hope not.  As I recall you were ready to murder me!"

"Well, do you think we might pick up before that point?

And that is exactly what they did when he came calling with flowers, candy, and a luncheon invitation.  He was a snappy dresser, drove a snazzy car, and had a cute personality.  Now, you have to understand that I have always wanted a grandfather because I never knew either of mine who died before I was born. To that end, I had even proposed to the gentleman who lived  next door to Granny for her because I thought he was a good candidate.  Fortunately, he just chuckled while she was mortified. So after a few dates when the former flame proposed AGAIN and I, being both a hopeless romantic and wanting a grandfather, enthusiastically prodded Granny to accept, she did just that to everyone's great surprise with one exception.  That exception would be yours truly. I like to think I helped to orchestrate their happiness with my encouragement.

And they were so happy together. On their honeymoon in New York City, Granny couldn't contain her joy, announcing to perfect strangers in elevators that she was a newlywed.  This white-haired Mrs. Santa Claus look-alike might have been pushing eighty, but she was a BRIDE and was going to shout it from the top of the Empire State Building!

One of my favorite lines in literature occurs in Jane Eyre when Jane, being prompted by the man she loves to give him advice on who to marry, tells him to choose the one who loves him best, to which Mr. Rochester replies "I will at least choose her I love best. Jane, will you marry me?"  This will forever remind me of my grandparents and their love for each other.  They chose, and they chose wisely, the ones whom they loved best, and they truly did live happily ever after in the sunset years of their lives.  I believe in love at any age, young or old, and in their case, it came around twice.

Their deep and abiding love for each other other is one of my favorite things in life, and I want to share that today at my friend Claudia's blog party, A Favorite Thing Saturday.  You can join us by clicking below:

http://www.mockingbirdhillcottage.com

And while Granny was anything but blue throughout her marriage, her wedding outfit was, indeed, blue, a light turquoise to be exact.  So I thought I would share that picture and the accompanying story at my friend Sally's party called Blue Monday.  I haven't done that in a while, and I miss her!  So if you would like to join us or just read along, you can do so by clicking below on Monday:

http:/smilingsally.blogspot.com

Thanks so much for visiting me.  I am still out of our house due to the construction process, and this past week, we have been on business in Miami.  I will be returning to St. Augustine tomorrow from Central Florida where we are now, and I will visit as I am able. I have to go to the library to access the Internet since we no longer have it at the house there.  But I do want to visit and see what is going on with my blog friends.  I hate to miss out.  But if I'm a bit sketchy in my responses, you will know why.

 Devotedly,

Mrs. Magpie (Sheila)

P.S.  Seeing the cheese wafers with the pecans on top in that first photo reminds me so much of family parties of yore.  Those treats or cheese straws were always served, and I wish I had my aunt's recipe for the former which was probably my grandmother's recipe originally.  My mother, my aunt, and my grandmother all had their own specialties, and sometimes they would swap.

At this wedding reception, there were also chicken salad, pimento cheese, and cucumber finger sandwiches, salted pecans, mints that melted in your mouth, coffee frappe, and wedding cake.  I can still see it all like it was yesterday!  Other sweets and goodies were on the table as well. Everything was beautiful with lovely linens and accoutrements, and yet, it was still simpler than parties today.  It makes me think how over the top weddings have become and how simple seems better because it places the focus on the bride and groom. So many weddings today seem to be about all the bells and whistles that cost as much as a new car and sometimes a new house!  And there are times that the marriage doesn't seem to last long enough for the ink to dry on the wedding license.  I wish we'd see a trend back in the other direction where the real focus is on the couple's commitment to each other and not their commitment to the event itself. How about you? What do you think?