This somewhat faded, sepia-toned photograph was taken of my parents on their month-long honeymoon in Mexico a lifetime ago.
The joy on their faces is almost palpable, and gazing on this photo, I can still hear their laughter playing through my mind like a familiar melody and feel the love that always surrounded them and enveloped others in its embrace.
They had quite the love story, even a bit unconventional, and I'd like to share it here for Valentine's Day...
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young lady in her twenties with a five year old daughter. The lady had gone through a very painful divorce and with the help and support of her family had gone back to college in New Orleans and earned a business degree. Her confidence and laughter returned, along with her suitors, and she soon found herself working for an attorney while becoming engaged to a very nice gentleman whose business as an oilman often took him to South America. That is where the gentleman was slated to spend the Christmas holidays one year. Before leaving, he proposed to the young lady, and she accepted his proposal. He sealed the deal with a diamond ring.
Each year, her fiancee's sister followed a family tradition and held a large Christmas party where friends from around the area congregated to celebrate the holidays. Since her brother was in South America, the party hostess called and asked an old family friend and bachelor if he would pick up the lovely Ms. E., the hostess' brother's fiancee, and escort her to the party. Since the bachelor was a "perfect gentleman" who had already sown his wild oats, enjoyed dating a lot of different ladies, was a close family friend, and had seen the other side of thirty, he was considered a safe bet to escort the betrothed.
What neither the hostess and her brother nor the bachelor and his charge counted on was the fact that when these latter two people (several years apart in age and veritable strangers) got together, it would be like striking a match to gasoline! The bachelor, my father, fell head over heels in love with his friend's fiancee, my mother. That one single night in my mother's company nailed it for my father. He pursued her with a vengeance!
The day after the party, while my mother and her family were shopping out of town, my dad called the druggist and ordered several pounds of candy to be delivered to her as a surprise. When the family got home, there were multiple boxes of candy on the doorstep! Apparently the druggist only had one-pound boxes available and didn't want to lose a sale, even at the expense of making Daddy look a bit goofy to Mama and her parents. Hence the surprise was on Daddy.
The goofiness with the candy did not deter him. The lovesick swain continued to pursue his good friend's fiancee. In a little red British sports car, Daddy took to driving up on the sidewalk to catch a glimpse of the object of his affection who worked at an attorney's office above the busy drug store on the corner. Mama's boss, whose desk faced the window, finally shook his head one day and said, "E., there isn't a citizen safe on the sidewalk, much less the street, if you don't marry that man!"
A case of pneumonia on Daddy's part brought Mama to his doorstep with hot food in hand, along with the company of a mutual friend. The friend said later on that he could tell something volatile, though still platonic, was going on between the two. Daddy's housekeeper (who oversaw the cooking) and his young valet (who took care of his clothes) weighed in on the attraction, too. As it turns out, each of them was correct as barely a month later Daddy had recuperated enough to elope with his good friend's fiancee!
When I queried Daddy about it years later, he said, "I never thought I would find anyone I loved as much as my own mother till I met your mother, and she was the full package. I had dated a lot of beautiful women, but your mother was as beautiful on the inside, where it really counts, as she was on the outside. And I simply couldn't live without her!" He loved her so much that he gave her his mother's engagement ring (which my sister has) and a diamond pin his father gave his mother (which I have). I also have the anniversary ring my mother gave my father.
And the feeling was mutual. In all the years that my dad was living, through all the years that my mother was widowed from him, until the day my mother died and went to join him, I never heard Mama say anything bad about Daddy. She loved him as much as he loved her and could laugh about, and even celebrate, his foibles. Those funny little things made him that much dearer to her.
My mother eloped twice in her life. The first time was a young girl's romantic error in judgment (though my wonderful older sister was the silver lining in that scenario), and the second time was a young lady's determination not to let anything stand in the way of marrying her "Funny Valentine" which she did shortly after Valentine's Day one cold February, almost 75 years ago.
And the funny thing is, everyone, even the jilted suitor, realized what a love story these two had and could forgive them, going on to lead happy lives of their own.
And the diamond ring? The jilted ex let her keep it, and she let me wear it, only to have it disappear into a clump of clover one spring day as I was making clover chains.
Whereas the other ring still bears the Old Testament inscription my grandfather, who spent a lot of time traveling, had inscribed in it for my grandmother... "Mizpah" which translates as, "The Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another."
That is my Valentine's wish for my friends here and for my own beloved. May the Lord watch between us, and I would hope that He would richly bless each of you with the goodness of His boundless and wonderous love.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Mrs. Magpie (Sheila)
