Wednesday Wisdom - I Hope I Never Have to Live Without You

I HOPE I NEVER HAVE TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU

"True love is not so much a matter of romance as it is a matter of anxious concern for the well-being of one's companion. Any man who will make his wife's comfort his first concern will stay in love with her throughout their lives and through the eternity yet to come."

Gordon B. Hinckley

 
 

  

My wife Marcie turns 66 next Tuesday. But unlike most women, she does not dread getting older. In fact, she has always looked forward to being her grandparents' age, perhaps because she had four truly angelic grandparents who doted on her and provided a foundation of love and stability in the midst of her parents' divorce. I too have found wonderful joys with each new stage of life as I advance through the years.  

We especially love being on this journey together. We were madly-in-love newlyweds at age 23, and we're still madly in love after all these years. A line from The Notebook captures our feelings for each other:

You are my best friend as well as my lover, and I do not know which side of you I enjoy the most. I treasure each side, just as I have treasured our life together.

So, we don't worry about getting older, but we do worry about leaving the other alone. Because of our temple marriage for time and all eternity, we know with an absolute certainty that we'll be husband and wife forever after we die. We just hope we can avoid long years of earth-life separation if one of us goes first.  

Winnie the Pooh gave voice to our deepest wish when he said:  

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.

We recognize that's not likely to happen, but wouldn't it be sweet if it did? It would probably be traumatic for our children, but for us it would be prayers answered and dreams come true.

Funny how your dreams change as you get older.