When I was about 15 years old, my mother told me that her parents had had a difficult marriage and had considered divorce. She said that, in the end, they chose to stay together and that they were a comfort to each other in their old age.
Divorce is so common today (half of all marriages) that we rarely think of the sacrifices involved in staying together when times are tough. I know that my grandparents were both independent, strong-willed people. Both were victims of alcoholism, which is a family disease, and both struggled to surrender and accept God’s will in their lives. My mother believed they were successful in the end.
It’s been more than 50 years since my grandparents passed away. (Today, I am as old as my grandfather was when he died.) I admire them and miss them more than ever now because I recognize the power of their love. Staying together took courage, patience and blind faith. They were far from being perfect people, but they were good to each other and to their family.
Happy 99th Anniversary, Anna May and Bill! Your love lives on in your family and in the witness you continue to give to all of us.
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