Tell me who you think is the perfect couple and why. This is a feel good moment. For me it is my grandfather (since past) and my grandmother on my mom's side. I can remember when I was a very very young man talking to my grandpa over breakfast one day. He told me how he met my grandma and how she was very "mature" (meaning curvy). Apparently he was impressed and he was grinning when he told me. Another time he told me how he was going to buy a new table for grandma and how happy it was going to make her. He said it with a sparkle in his eye. A lifetime together and I think he was still chasing her around that table at night. I can only hope I'm still chasing my wife at that age.

James Carville and Mary Matalin.

My Parents.
The story of their loving long relationship started during World War II when my mother from Seattle Washington was an office worker at an Oakland, CA ship builder. My Dad was serving in the Navy stationed at Alameda Naval Air Station.
They married and started out living in a small travel trailer they moved from Navy Base to Navy Base. They were children of the depression, and their moral and financial roots were very similar. They scrimped and saved for their and the families future.
While I was growing up, they were not the lovey dovey kissy kiss all the time kinds, but they always were supportive for their other, and equal partner. They were in Love, but quietly.
My Father spent over 21 years in the Navy, and Mom would take care of the family when he was overseas. After my Father retired, he pursued a second career in insurance.
My mother then started selling residential real estate and was very successful.
The beauty of their love was the sincere pleasure each partner got in the success of the other partner. They were equals in every sense.
When my Father retired from his second career, my Mom also stopped selling real estate. They were smart to turn mom's extra income into Rental DuPlexes for investment income.
At 55 they retired full time. They always enjoyed taking their many different travel trailers on monthly outings, and then they started traveling internationally. As my lone brother and I watched them travel, we were encouraged that they would finally spend money on themselves.
This couple that started with nothing finally had found something new that broke the old save-save-save habit. Recently they would take 3 major trips a year. Mexico, Russia, europe, Africa, South East, South Pacific, Egypt, Mexico..........
This was a 62 year long love story. Until last October when my VERY healthy 84 year old Father passed away from an infection while recovering form his first real hospital stay. This is a man that walked every morning, and played golf twice a week. He was spry, and even his doctors noted on his charts that he looked 60.
While in the hospital, with no thought that things would go bad, my father was rejoicing that my mother at 82 was driving more, and coping. He expressed to me his concern for her to staying active. My mother is healthy, but not very physically active, but both very sharp mentally.
The most compelling part of this long romance was near the end as my father was fighting the infection with higher while blood cell counts than any of the attending physicians had ever seen. He fought till near the end, while my fathers systems were near failure. My wonderful mother wiped his face, while we watched. As she talked to her lover, she doubted that in this severe state he could hear her. She so much wanted to tell him how she felt.
My mother whispered to my father, don't worry honey, it is OK, I won't be far behind.
My Mom got up from his side to wash her hands........within 3 seconds of her telling him it was OK......all the vital signs crashed. The nurse and I shockingly looked art each other in amazement. I led my mom back to my dad's side. He passed away in mere seconds.
My wonderful Father, fought an incredible fight, and had to hang on until my mother said it would be OK. He had heard her.
This was a loving ending. They were surely a case where 1 + 1 = More than 2

The best thing I overheard my mother tell a friend on the phone was---they had been retired for nearly 30 years, and had been with other 24/7 for that entire time minus maybe 15 days total. They got to spend so much quality time together. They had had a full life together.

They were Husband and Wife, Parents, Grand Parents, and Great Grand Parents.
My Father walked softly, but cast a large shadow.

My hastily arranged meager tribute is here
[johnspencer.us]

Click on his "Life in Photos" for the video.
or here [web.mac.com]

The link to yout tube is dead--but here is the link to the hand shadow I mentioned
[www.youtube.com]

Thanks for listening. Please excuse any grammar or typos, I can barely read my screen anymore. I have to wipe tears.

edit- Dad was a Mac guy till the end. Started with an Apple iic and ended with Macbook and iMac G5

The happy couple almost 2 years ago




Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2008 02:26AM by Ken Sp..

Thanks for that Ken Sp.

You must come from an incredible gene pool with parents like that.

Britney & K-Fed.

Their relationship will endure.

Here is the photo 60 years before the one above

My Grandma and Grandpa.

They were married 53 years. He was 34 and she was 17 when they got married.

All you had to do was look at them to know they deeply loved each other.

He passed away in 1986. She passed away in Feb. 2008.

One of the last things she asked me was if I thought she would get to see her husband again in heaven.

I couldn't keep back the tears but I told her I thought she would.

That love lasted more than a lifetime.

---

I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making
him carry me, and yet assure myself and others
that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his
lot by all possible means — except by getting off
his back. - Leo Tolstoy, novelist and Philosopher
(1828-1910)

Ken sp.. I can barely see the screen too. (sniff). That was awesomely lovely. I like to think my wife and I are on the same course. My grandparents were the same way.

We had an arrangement in our family. One cousin of college age would spend the summer with my grandparents as their general helper-outer. Cooking, cleaning, driving (as needed), doing things with them. Oh, and hanging out on the Southampton Beach when we weren't needed.

My duty summer, my grandparents had a huge argument. I'm not sure what it was about, but it was certainly inconsequential. My grandmother, at about 80, said "Im leaving you !", packed a bag, called a cab, and took a train into New York to stay with a friend.

My grandfather, aged 82, spent the entire week moping around, missing her, trying to call her on the phone (which was rare- they were of a generation that didn't gab on the phone), writing her letters.

When my grandmother returned a week later with a new hairstyle, new clothes, refreshed and lovelier than ever, my grandfather was ecstatic, and swore he would never disagree with her again.

Later that evening, my grandmother told me "It's important to not take each other for granted. That and I have to keep him guessing some times !".

When they reached their early 90's, my grandmother was often heard to say "I have to make sure I outlive him. He would be lost without me.". She did, by about 2 years.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!