We grew up in the same little town. I was in the tenth grade, and she was in the seventh before I knew her. I used to tease her when she came into the cafeteria as some older guys do. Her face always lit up. My best friend and I passed out the milk. I heard that she really liked me, but I thought she was too young. Little did I know, we were the same age depending on which expert you talk to.

When I enlisted in the Air Force, my photo was placed in the local newspaper, and she wrote me. We wrote to each other off and on for years, but I had not taken her serious. When I was discharged, I went home to wait for college to start. I visited my friend, the guidance counselor. He told me that she was in college twenty four miles away and that he happened to be going that way the next week. When we stopped by, I was told by the house mother that she was not in but would tell her that I stopped by.

We wrote to each other and planned to meet the next week-end. By then her mother had moved to another town eighteen miles away, between our two schools. My cousin took me to see her. After seeing her after four years I was very interested in her. She still had a smile that lit up the room. “I had been looking for love in all the wrong places.” I had been in love before, but she has always loved me.

The last year of college I married my wife of 50 years. Proverbs 31 “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.