Over the Christmas holidays, I was fortunate to meet a
new friend. As we get older it becomes harder to find a
true friend right away who you know would do almost
anything for you. After Christmas, we had lunch together
and he told me one of the most beautiful love stories.
I am writing with his permission but leaving names out.
He is a widower, having lost his wife two years ago.
He tells the story of how lost and depressed he was at the
beginning of the loss. Yet as time went on, he found his days
getting a little easier, until a birthday or an anniversary came along.
After over a year he ran into another old friend who also had
become a widower as a young woman with children.
By this time she was remarried and he had a very
important question to ask her.
"When does the feeling like you are cheating on your spouse go away?"
This seemed to have been weighing on his heart as
he was trying to move on.
She shared some very good advice, the biggest part
of it was this, she pointed to the wedding ring he still wore
and said, "... and you need to pick up your wedding ring,
take it off, kiss it and put it away."
He listened to all her advice and told her how he felt about
it all and said, "But I am not going to stop wearing my wedding ring."
A few days later, working at his homestead, he was bit
by ants on that hand that caused his ring finger to swell quite a bit.
He took the wedding ring off so that it would not get stuck with
every intention to put it back on once his bites healed
He speaks of a few times trying to put the sacred ring back on and
the finger remained too swollen to get the ring on.
He took this as a sign from his wife, kind of telling him,
giving him permission to move on.
He remembered another word of advice his friend had given him
"Your wife, she would not want you to be alone as you age,
to waste the years you have left alone."
As the ring continued not to fit, these thoughts crossed his
mind and heart. So, after days, he took his friends advice,
kissed the ring
and as he put it in his jewelry box he spoke
to his dear wife, "This must be your sign that its time to move on"
He never wore it again and the guilt feeling he felt when
speaking to his friend seemed to be gone.
What a beautiful story of marriage, selflessness and a wife
helping her husband overcome his grief.
I often say, Sometimes The Big Man does for us, what we don't
have to courage to do for ourselves. this beautiful story is one
of those examples.
Thank you friend for sharing such a special story and allowing me
to share it here for others to read, experience.
