So I posted about my book dedication to my parents last time. Today, I want to talk a bit about why their love inspires me.
First, in 2019, this planet lost many great people. Two of which were my parents. Yes, that is a bit of a downer. And yes, I miss them every day. But the legacy of love that they left behind is truly remarkable.
And that’s where I aim to go with this.
History:
My parents met in high school in a small town in Texas. As the story goes, my mother wasn’t impressed with my father any more than he was impressed with her. But sometime before my mother’s senior year that all changed. My father graduated, went off to basic training, swept back through Kerrville on his way to Roswell, New Mexico (where he would be stationed) and married my mother. She was 16 at the time. He was 19. They were babies.
My babies are older than they were then!
They weren’t well-off. They were hundreds of miles away from home. They lived in a tiny apartment at the back of someone’s house…and when I say apartment, I mean an old chicken coop that had been converted into a studio-style apartment with a curtain as a bathroom door. (They laughed lots about those years!)
But they had love.
And from this love, grew a love of the finest things in life.
Experiences:
My parents loved to travel. Everywhere they went, they viewed with wide-eyed wonder. They camped in the forests, they fished in the lakes, they hiked on the trails. And everywhere, my dad toted a camera. My dad retired his ancient Polaroid long after he passed on the shutter-bug to my sister and I. We carried our cameras everywhere. (we took some horrid pictures in the beginning…but he trusted us to capture the moments – even if not everyone had heads).
The loved experiences. And they gathered them by the basketfuls! When my sister and I were very young, my parents bought their first camper. That would lead to a string of them….I think four in all? And they gathered more experiences…
As a family, we gathered them in our home town at art shows and state fairs and balloon fiestas. In our state we gathered them at caves and sands, state parks and churches. In our country we gathered them in massive cities, small towns and lazy countrysides. We gathered them along beaches, in lighthouses, and all the way down to the end of piers.
My parents loved life! They loved each other!
And they loved romance.
Next Time:
Next time we’ll explore the question – Does the couple who reads romance novels together, stay together?