With clasped hands and happy hearts they still walk the country roads of my youth. They're well into their eighties now, but she's every bit as beautiful as the long-ago bride who promised to love forever a handsome young man in a world war II uniform
Homefolks often wondered how those two retained their youth ...
The town's self-proclaimed renegade, looking back over heartaches his youthful escapades caused his own mother and the gut-wrenching agony his teenagers dutifully laid on him, provided the best answer to that question, "They never had anything to make them old. They never had children!"
Is that an accurate explanation? Would colic and teething and mid-night feedings have shattered their nervous systems? Would failing grades on a report card have wrinkled their brows? Would a beloved teenager stumbling in the front door two hours past curfew with alcohol on his breath have caused their hearts to malfunction? Maybe ... We can never know what might have been. Not in their lives. Not in our own.
I cannot imagine missing motherhood. I was born to be a mother. It's my identity. Does that mean I was good at the job? No, I made terrible mistakes. However, looking back over more than seven decades, I'm relieved to see my finer moments outweighed my flaws many times over.
Life's worth every wrinkle.
email: MelindaGerner@yahoo.com
