by Jean Henegan
I’m not the type to believe in happily ever after or even the concept of true love. Possibly because I’ve never been in love myself, but that’s a topic for therapy rather than this collab. But, for one moment several years ago, I dropped my cynicism toward the concept of love and entertained that, perhaps, true love might not just be a fairy tale creation.
My grandfather was in his 90s and starting to show signs of dementia. While he was still pretty sharp, he would occasionally have memory lapses and not quite be able to place people and things. But whenever he saw a photo of my grandma, he knew exactly who she was and just how much she had meant to him – even though she had passed away several years earlier.
We were visiting him one weekend, my parents, sisters, and I, and he asked a simple question.
“How long was I married to Jo?”
“60 years,” my mother told him.
His blue eyes grew wide and a smile appeared on his face. He seemed to sink a bit into his chair, taking a deep breath and looking up toward the ceiling, before turning to look at us with a serene look on his face.
“60 years. Wow. It only felt like a second.”
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