One True Love Story for Valentine's Day

One True Love Story for Valentine's Day

 

Valentine's Day is only a week away and recently, while I was waiting in the checkout aisle at my grocery store, I overheard two ladies talking about the upcoming holiday. One of the women was in a new relationship and looked forward to the day of red. The other woman, who reminded her friend that she's been married for more than 15 years, listened to her friend swoon about her new love interest, rolled her eyes and, wearing a smirk, tartly remarked, "That's nice but have you ever heard this quote...?

"'Love is like a card game. You start by playing with two hearts and one player wants the diamond. It ends with one or both players wanting a club and a spade.'"

When she finished reciting the quote, she smiled at her friend and now the woman "in love" was rolling her eyes at her longtime married pal. Obviously, these two women didn't agree about the significance of Valentine's Day or share the same feelings when it came to celebrating the holiday, and to be truthful, more people might agree with the cynical woman.

Whichever side of the fence you’re sitting on (planning that Anti-Valentine's Day Party, or picking out chocolates for your special honey), the topic of love has always been popular, even before Chaucer made it courtly in the Middle Ages.

If you’re dreading the day, this true love story might melt your cold heart. The main characters aren’t Romeo and Juliet but George and Pearle. It goes like this…

“Real love stories never have endings” - Richard Bach

It was a blue-sky hot-and-humid summer afternoon in July and I was beginning my shift at thenursing home, caring for elderly patients. Every morning, like clockwork, George, an 85-year-old gentleman, would be transported to our facility by the assisted living senior bus, just in time to have breakfast with Pearl, his wife of 60 years. “Sweet Girl Pearl” (as George affectionately referred to her) had been admitted into our facility that April and George was trying to adjust to living apart from the love of his life. George had been told that Pearl would probably never leave the facility.

Pearl had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease and it was progressively getting worse. In its later stages, Pearl had forgotten how to walk and was confined to a wheelchair that George would push around the home, wearing his famous crooked smile. “Just taking a tour with my beautiful wife,” he'd say as he tipped his Red Sox baseball cap to me. I’d usually spot them together outside on the patio, holding hands in the shade. They sat in complete silence but both would smile at anyone who passed by. Unless George was pushing Pearl in her wheelchair, they were always holding hands.

By June, Pearl had stopped recognizing George, but this didn’t seem to bother him. Every morning, he'd routinely arrive by his senior bus, greet his wife with a soft kiss on the cheek, and wheel her down to the breakfast hall. George would hold a fork to feed his wife with one hand, and use his other free hand to hold on to his wife. They were forever holding hands, smiling and sitting in silence.

It was shortly after the fourth of July, and George had not yet taken down the red-white-and-blue decorations he had brought the week before to decorate Pearl's room with. As I wheeled another patient to the cafeteria,