Consider it simply amazing.
Consider it an unearthed treasure.
Consider it a lighthouse to guide the generations beyond their life.
Consider it another Wonder of the World.
Consider love for a lifetime.
That’s what Bill and Gloria considered their first day of marriage throughout their sixty-six wonderful years together;
Love for a lifetime.
To have and to hold,
From this day forward.
For better, for worse.
For richer, for poorer.
In sickness and in health.
To love and to cherish.
Till death us do part,
According to God’s holy matrimony,
In the presence of God we make this vow.
And that they did, for sixty-six years.
Never wavering their commitment when times were lean.
Never considering giving up in worse.
Holding tight to each other in sickness.
Bill and Gloria,
According to God’s holy matrimony,
Cherished one another before their children.
Cleaved to each other in the eyes of their grandchildren.
They preferred one another in the presence of God.
They embraced a love for a lifetime.
A legacy to leave;
Something God would have us all to consider.
Gloria Ann left her Bill for heaven on November 30, 2015;
a sad day for us; a glorious day for Christ and Gloria.
The first time I ever saw them apart.
Even though a vacant seat remains at the breakfast table where Bill and Gloria once shared a few pieces of toast and coffee prepared by Bill each morning;
I never see one without the other,
As the love Bill still carries for Gloria illuminates his eyes.
The love this couple shared together has been passed down four generations thus far; a love story to be told and recounted over and over during bedtime stories to the grandchildren present and beyond.
Gloria’s love spilled over as a teapot being poured into the cups of her daughter’s and granddaughter’s life.
There is always enough love and room at the table in Bill’s heart for his special girls also.
Bill and Gloria passed their legacy of love for a lifetime to their children, their grandchildren and those beyond their natural eyes to see.
Their love for a lifetime,
A love only known in Christ,
Stands as a lighthouse to guide through the darkest days,
The roughest and uncharted waters,
Reaching and safely continuing another day as man and wife.
Adopted into our hearts, Gloria held the honor of matriarch alongside the other pillars in our family. We only knew her as nanny, as love will do that.
Bill carries the torch of patriarch and is only known to us as papa; whose family added new branches to reach our family tree, by sharing themselves with those not sharing their DNA;
Being nanny and papa to so many not related by blood, but knitted together in true love.
The sun is going down in papa’s eyes as his longing for that one he
Loved for a lifetime is winning.
Sitting side by side along the water’s edge will forever be “their place”.
The cool and calm of the river still ripples between two hearts, whose devotion to the other never parted them, even unto death.
Bill and Gloria’s sixty-six years together is an unearthed treasure, a treasure map, an adventure to discover true love in your wedding vows.
Consider it simply amazing.
Consider sixty-six years together another Wonder of the World.
Consider love for a lifetime.
Bill and Gloria did.
Apples of Gold Encouragement 