George and Thelma

George and Thelma were in love.
The real forever kind.
That doesn’t have earthly boundaries.
That persists in their grandchildren’s eyes.

They met at a picnic in a park in the 1940s,
and lived a simple life on a dairy farm. They believed in God and doing their part.

Sunday was for church; George says it kept them together for 58 years. Until cancer took her away.

At 82, he still finds their pew, two rows back, and carries with him a small rectangle case.

It’s black and soft like velvet.
He places it beside him; where she used to sit.
Inside it, are her pearls.


Note from Laura in 2021:
My beloved grandparents, George and Thelma, are together again with God. My Grandpa, George, passed away in 2015, four years after I originally wrote this. I’ll always treasure the memory of sitting next to my sister and my Grandpa in church that day. Both of us wondering what was in that black velvet box. When we got to the farmhouse after church, he put the box down on the kitchen counter and went into the dining room to set the table for lunch. My sister and I looked at each other - our eyes telling the other one to open it. I opened it. My heart nearly burst when I saw her pearls. I wore them around my wrist on my wedding day. Sadly, my Grandpa died just 3 months earlier. Their pastor, Kerry, married Ben and I and we felt them with us.