Love Stories

Fairy tales start with “Once upon a time…” as an introduction to the tale. Movie writers weave love stories into their plots using familiar themes, often so gently that viewers may not recognize the romantic storyline until well into the movie. Many people experience love stories in their lives, though not all are aware of them. Some women notice them frequently, while some men may not notice them at all.

There are only about two or three scripts for Christmas Love Stories, and they just substitute a few changes with names, locations, and the last-minute crisis near the end that must be overcome via an unexpected miracle. At this point, someone is asking why I watch them. I cherish my memories of the times I watched them with Eva. Eva had a collection of books she read, and many are love stories from the old west times, like “Loves Come Softly”. She loved to read and could read some books in two or three days. I still have several hundred of her books that I have not given away.

Eva liked watching the Astro games, but she did not care about other sports, and certainly not NASCAR. However, she would stay in the room with me while I watched them and read a book. I would watch the movies with her, maybe at first out of obligation. Most of the movies are just stories written for TV and not based on true stories; they can present situations that trigger memories of events in your life. There were times when Eva and I would just look at each other and know we were thinking about the same time in the past.

I had never thought about our marriage being a love story until one day Eva was telling one of my cousins about when we first met. My cousin’s response was, “Wow, what a love story!” We had just lived our lives together in the moment and did the best we could with what life presented. Looking back, I think Eva may have felt she was living out her fairy tale that included a lot of unplanned issues that made us stronger as a family.

After Eva passed away, I thought a lot about what I should share with others about what she meant to our family. I decided to write a book about our life together. Several memories came to mind; I decided to create a blog website where those short stories could be shared and kept. After several stories, I realized our marriage was a love story that could be several stories over the years, including events we never expected, and we had to find our way through them. Stories that included both “highs” and “lows”.

Love stories can also be of a father and daughter getting through her problems of domestic violence, or a mother and son dealing with problems in his life. Any parent with a child with health or mental issues certainly has a love story, even if it is not viewed that way at this point. The greatest love story is the story of Jesus Christ, and the level of love shown that none of us can match.