"Reek of Honeymoon Love"

My Social Work teacher may or may not be the most adorable man on the planet…

On my way back to RX from Vegas an adorable older couple sat across from me. I couldn’t help but notice how precious they were- they were holding hands the whole time and just screamed super in love.. I even leaned over to the chick next to me to say how cute they were. I considered stopping to tell them that I want to be just like them when I grow up.. but refrained. Because they were older I wondered how long they’d been together and why they were so dang adorable, assuming they’d been together for a while. Anywho.. the next Monday I found out the man was my Social Work professor when we recognized each other from the plane on the first day of class. In his introduction of himself he explained that he had recently been married (everytime he talks about his wife he mentions his wife he tells the whole class that “Emily” sat across form them on the plane, again (which is embarrassing but so cute I don’t really care) . If that wasn’t cute enough today he brought her into class with him to introduce herself. The whole class was super excited and “aaaaahing” (prob because we’re a Social Work class- there are like 30 women and 3 men) and whatnot and asking questions about how they met and their dating. They were both widowed, after bring married for 37 and 38 years and found each other 3.5 and half a year after their losses, and talked about how hard it is to overcome that sorrow and mental block, and to learn to be alone again. She told the story about meeting him at a state fair while he was on a date with another woman and he insisted on having her come with him to his car to get a jacket for her because it was raining.  He says he didn’t know what possessed him but he wrote down his name and number on a piece of paper and stuck it in his jacket pocket before giving it to her and telling her “she was welcome to keep anything in the pockets”. She talked about how they stayed up all night talking on the phone for six hours, and she felt like it couldn’t have been more than sixty minutes and shared a story about him pulling over and jumping out of the car to run into a floral shop to buy her roses. I told them how cute they were, and how I could see it on the plane and he said they’ve had several people stop to say the same thing.. “I guess we kind of just reek of honeymoon love (old people honeymoon love is real! AND people who aren’t newlyweds can still be in love.. my grandparents are.)”

I DO want to be like them when I grow up! I can’t imagine how hard it would be to lose an EC in this life, and be left alone after being together longer than apart in this life. But God had a plan for their happiness that did not end when their beloved companions died. It just goes to show that even though Heavenly Father’s plan is not always what we have in mind.. he knows what he is doing. There is ALWAYS greater happiness ahead, even when we can’t see it around the corner. --Elder Holland's "Don't you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead.... You keep your chin up. It will be alright in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come"--They are more in love than I think I've ever seen a couple, and are stronger, more developed people because of their experience being alone and dealing with loss.

PS: A man in my BOM class was relaying a story and was talking about his wife of 13 years and just said “and it was so cute.. she said “thank you”- I LOVE that he still thinks she is “so cute”.

Everyone is so flippin’ adorable today it hurts!