Todays Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul

[Guest guest]

Open Heart

By Rickey Mallory

My parents fell in love at first sight, and they've been in love for

more

than fifty-two years. They're not just comfortable with each other, or

merely

tolerant of each other's faults. They are still truly, deeply in love, with

all

the passion and heartache that wildly emotional state entails.

My father has always been more of a tease than a romantic, and he has

regaled us with tales of his exploits all our lives. For example, the first

time he and my mother ever spoke to each other was after World War II, after

Daddy had just returned from Japan. He was driving his brother's brand-new

car

through town when he saw my mother go into a furniture store. Pulling over,

he

jumped out of the car and managed to slip into the store right behind her.

My

twenty-six-year-old mother, who was thinking about finding an apartment,

asked

the store owner to show her the twin bedroom set she had admired the week

before. My father, a mere passing acquaintance, stepped up beside her and

said,

" Now Maude, we are not sleeping on twin beds. "

They were married three months later, and they did sleep on one of the

twin

beds until they could afford a double bed. Fifty-three years later they

still

sleep in the same bed.

At age seventy-eight, my father had open-heart surgery. My

seventy-six-

year-old mother spent every night at the hospital, and every day beside his

bed.

The first thing Daddy said when they removed the tracheal tube from his

throat

was one of the most romantic things I've ever heard. He said, " Maude, you

know

what that doctor found when he cut me open? He found your name engraved on

my

heart. "