Print or Email

So on this day, forty-five years ago, a Saturday like today, I stood in the third-story living room of a college girl’s apartment, waiting on a girl who I had never met nor seen. Her roommate had answered the door and called her name out, “Vickie, your date is here!” When Chip and Dan Heath wrote a book called “The Power of Moments,” I think they had Vickie in mind. A couple of minutes later, she came out of her room, and I can tell you, I’ve never forgotten that moment. She was smiling, and she walked just so…girly. She was dressed perfectly, and honestly, she took my breath away. I would never have admitted it then, nor did I want to admit it till years later. I don’t know why! I guess I was just a dumb boy!

I know people frown when they hear of quick marriages, but sometimes a man has to act quickly for fear of losing. So that’s why I asked her within a month to marry me. A good ambush works on occasion! The total courtship lasted less than four months before we took our vow. I’ve never known anyone quite like her. I guess you can say I’m a bit obsessed with her. And it’s been forty-five years. What’s the matter with me! I think I know the answer.

So that’s the ‘power of her’ that she holds over me. She has me ‘wrapped around her finger, and I’m never letting go.’ (Bryan Adams, “Where Angels Fear To Tread) And I’m happy it’s that way because true love is hard for many people to find. But I’m lucky and blessed. Because forty-five years ago today, my quest for true love ended, and the long journey of adulthood and marriage began. And at times, you feel like this life can overcome you with its challenges and trials. But with God as my co-pilot and the ‘power of her’ by my side, this life has been as close to heaven as I can ask.

In the coming years, who knows what we will face together? But I have faith in eternal covenants we have made together with the Savior that life and marriage are eternal. And that we will be together forever. And I hold on to that moment when I first saw her face and felt her touch and heard her laugh. And when I first felt her ‘power’ lifting me to a higher level of manhood. I want that moment to last…for eternity!