‘Til Death Do They Part: Oh, Those Swans
- w listopad 2nd, 2008 :: Seks
One of the most difficult life passages a minister shares with her people is the end of a marriage. I don’t mean divorce — which is certainly deeply sad in its own way — but the parting that comes when one of the spouses dies.
Fifty-six years of marriage. Forty-two years of marriage. And most recently, sixty-nine years of marriage. I saw them as swans, mated for life with their necks intertwined. There is only one terrible thing about such a long and happy marriage: that it inevitably ends like this, with one weeping at bedside while the other closes her eyes, murmurs reassuring words, and turns her attention to her own dying.
They were so gentle with each other. He called her dear and she called him dear but pronounced it “De-ah.” They would often casually hold hands when I visited, sitting at their dining room table as […]