Love Is Simple

I want a simple love like that
Always giving never asking back
When I'm in my final hour looking back
I hope I had a simple love like that
--Sarah Siskind, songwriter

On May 15, 1945, Charles Davis and Marion Page were married. When I called my grandmother last year to wish her and my grandfather a happy anniversary, I asked her what she remembered about her wedding day.

She said they got married at the preacher’s house.

I asked her what time of day, and she said it was in the afternoon.

I asked her who was there, and she said her brother Vodrey and his girlfriend, Kathleen. She said that Vodrey was in the service and had made her promise not to get married until he came home.

She said it was a simple service.

Love is simple, and sixty-seven years ago today my grandparents who were 17 at the time, made a promise to one another.

Love is simple, but life can be complicated. And my grandparent’s lives have been both full of love and challenges. Love sustains them, and they have built their lives on a foundation of love and faith.

I deeply admire my grandparents. They kept their promise to one another through the good times and the hard times.

They model love by living simply and humbly, by focusing on family and faith, and by caring for one another.

They are the parents of three children including Alice (my mom), Norma, and Chuck.

They lost a child: my aunt, Norma, who died in 1993 at age 46.

They have 6 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.

They have lived through both joy-filled times and really difficult times. And they kept their promise.

Their wedding ceremony on that Tuesday afternoon in May of 1945 was as my grandmother said: simple.

And their love and marriage have exemplified that love is indeed simple…and strong….and love is all there is.

Happy Anniversary, Granny and Bigdaddy:

When I'm in my final hour looking back I hope I had a simple love like that!