A Beautiful History

I did the neatest thing today; I read and organized (by date) the love letters my Great-Grandparents wrote to each other during their courtship and marriage.  A lot of their letters dated back to 1944, when my Grandfather served in World War II--my Grandpa was in the Navy and my Grandma was a nurse.

My Great-Grandparents were madly and hopelessly in love their entire lives. The love they described in letters and illustrated throughout life is a love most people only dream of having.  

My Great-Grandfather died when I was a baby but my Great-Grandma (G.G. is what we called her) lived until my senior year in high school.  She suffered from Alzheimer's the last few years of her life.  For six years, we went regularly to her unit to watch movies, paint nails, play games, tell stories, and.... even take dates to keep her company--we knew a boy was a keeper if he survived or even enjoyed these visits ;).  Visiting G.G. was one of my favorite activities in High School.  

I grew to deeply love my G.G. 

Alzheimer's is an unforgiving disease that slowly took her mind before taking her life.  At the end of her life, she was unable to remember previous conversations, our names, and  simple memories.  However, one thing she never forgot was her sweet husband.  Above her T.V. was a large picture of her husband.  We would ask her who the man was in the photograph and she would, sometimes with tears in her eyes, say: "Hello Wallace Austin Tuckett, you handsome man, you." 

Her sweetheart was the one person she never forgot her entire life.

Their letters and pictures are simply magical.

               

 

They danced all their years together and, I imagine, are dancing in the heavens together now.

They even regularly shared their glasses when they got older and sang their love song together for anniversaries 

(G.G. had a beautiful soprano voice). 

G.G.'s beauty radiated all the days of her life . 

This is the G.G. that I knew and love.  How grateful I am that she cherished and held onto those letters exchanged throughout her life between her and her sweetheart.  I learned more about a wonderful woman, wife, and mother that I did not have the privilege of knowing until her later years. I learned of a loving and charismatic father, husband, and grandfather that I never knew.  

AND I learned of a beautiful love story that proved to withstand the test of time.  

How am I so lucky to be related to such beautiful people with a beautiful history?