Thank you to everyone that entered our Love Story Contest and congratulations to our winners!
The Loadman Love Story
Bob & Helen Loadman
Married 2/11/1949
In the beginning they only had eyes for each other. The future was bright and beckoning and the hard times of the past were behind them. They were children of the Great Depression whose families survived by grit, hard work and a strong sense of pride and family. Their world was rocked by the onset World War II and life came to a halt until the war ended.
After serving his country both the Eastern and the Western fronts and recently back home to a country on the mend, Bob chose to attend an adults dance on the roof top of his old high school. Little did he know that the stars were in alignment on that divine summer’s eve. That was the evening he would meet his bride-to-be through mutual friends. Although Bob and Helen went to the same high school, they did not know each other. Helen also made the unforeseen yet insignificant decision to attend the same dance that warm summer night. Dancing on the roof under the twinkling stars somehow struck magic in two people who 70 years later still only have eyes for each other.
Bob and Helen shared together a long life with all its typical ups and downs, never wavering from each other. Now their eyes gaze outward as they renewed their marriage vows in front of family and friends five years ago. Their many years were richly blessed with five children along the way, loving families and numerous friends. They cherish their five grandchildren and now a great-grandchild. They smile brightly at the world that gave them a life together and relish its abundant memories. After 69 years of marriage they hold tightly to the magic that showered down on a simple roof top from the twinkling stars above.
Cupid Versus the Grim Reaper
by Don Mathis
Mom and her parents, back before I was around, needed a place to stay when they came into town. They found a room to rent above the funeral home; a ‘Roger Miller’ Special – No pets, please, no phone. My future dad, home from the war, was staying with his brother, Uncle George, mortician, embalmer, and county coroner. Dan met bernadine in the hallway and on the step. Romance in a mortuary? The story gets stranger yet. Cupid’s arrows will defeat the Grim Reaper’s scythe. Death’s no match for Love! That’s no idle myth.
Dan and Dine made a date for the Friday evening show. The both got gussied up. It was almost time to go. Then Uncle George got a call. A corpse had just come in. Daniel couldn’t leave; Uncle George needed all his men. Future Dad explained his best, “The movie will have to wait.” But future Mom said, “Oh well, let’s not break our date.” So they got back in their work clothes and rolled up their sleeves and spent their first date together dressing up a body. They say that love is blind, but I didn’t know its smell had died, for in this case, love overpowered the odor of formaldehyde.