Our honeymoon was a brief stay on a beach in Florida. Not as spectacular for us as you might think since we
lived just across the state. He was nineteen and I was eighteen. We thought we
were pretty grown up. We weren’t. We grew together over time, learning about
life and love and balancing college and work. Eventually, we learned about
parenting and trusting God with our daily lives. But all of that is another
story.
This Christmas I Spend With You
The song was old. I don’t
remember where I first heard it. The lyrics were something like, “Mark this
holiday; mark it well. Note how perfectly right it fell. All my wishes at last
have come true, because this Christmas I spend with you.”
I could look up the words if
I wanted to, but they may be different than I remember and I don’t want to
spoil the mood.
We were married one week before Christmas. The pianist couldn’t find the music to that special
song, so we had her play “The Twelfth of Never,” and “Bridge Over Troubled
Water.” Tom sang the Christmas song to me. Just me. On our honeymoon. “Mark this holiday; mark it well…”
For my gift, Tom bought me a wedding
candle. I gave him cufflinks. Our mothers lit the candle that Saturday night in
December at our wedding. We burned the candle every anniversary. I don’t know
what happened to the cufflinks.
The candle was supposed to
last for twenty-five years. We lit it every December on our anniversary. It
burned as we ate dinner. We would dance in the candlelight. We took it with
us when our anniversary was celebrated on a ski trip in Colorado or when we
traveled to see our parents over the holidays. We never missed a year of
lighting our special candle.
Our Candle with Pics from our Wedding and the weddings of our girls. |
And then early in November, just weeks before our forty-third anniversary I burned it for six hours one night and another hour the next morning. A thousand people witnessed it. It still stood tall. But that morning; that sun drenched November morning when I blew it out, I followed the Hearst to the cemetery and buried the only man I ever loved.
Yes, perhaps I was a bit
melancholy when I first wrote this story of our candle, but I cherish the gift
I had in being Tom’s wife. I treasure the forty-three years we celebrated life
together. I’m fully aware there are people who can’t lay claim to even forty-three
months of a happy marriage. Recently,
someone asked me if I continue to burn the candle on my anniversary. I don’t. Surely
one day my children will burn it to nothingness and celebrate the fact that I’ve
joined Tom…that together, we are experiencing joy beyond measure in the presence
of Jesus.
Now that’s cool.
To give to the Thomas R. Waters Memorial Scholarship Fund, follow this link and use the "Make a Gift" button on the right. On the form, use the drop down feature on the box to direct your gift to the Thomas R. Waters Memorial Scholarship:
http://www.cdcfoundation.org/ what/program/waters- scholarship Thank you.
To give to the Thomas R. Waters Memorial Scholarship Fund, follow this link and use the "Make a Gift" button on the right. On the form, use the drop down feature on the box to direct your gift to the Thomas R. Waters Memorial Scholarship:
http://www.cdcfoundation.org/
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