Becoming my first great love...

Sometimes I'm jealous of him...

He had the purity of 

the "love of his life"

and on that day, 47 years ago,

he married her.

On that same day,

as it turns out,

I married my first great love.

Sometimes I envy that he never loved another.

 

We were unique.

Oh, we'd had crushes,

boys and girls we thought were cute,

that made our tummies tumble when we saw them,

but love?

No.

On that July day in 1971,

at the tender ages of just-turned-14

and not-quite-16,

we made a "going steady" commitment

and no one else was ever more than a passing thought after that.

We were each the love of the other's life.

And on March 20, 1976,

when even the "passing thoughts" had long since ceased,

we got married,

promising before God and man

to love only one another for as long as we both lived.

We both kept that promise.

 

Then the darkest of dark January.

The day I said "see you later"

to the love of my life

and the door to another great love was opened,

one that, a bit more than two years later,

I would walk through.

And the love of my life

became my first great love.

 

This morning I woke myself calling his name,

memories flooding my mind,

my heart swelling with love for him. 

He has held my hand all day.

At the funeral we attended

where another cried through the "see you later"

to the chill of visiting him at the cemetery 

on this blustery first day of spring,

he has held my hand.

Today, and that "going steady" day in July,

are the days I feel the "love of my life" loss most acutely.

He is my first great love.

And a great love it was!!!

 

Sometimes I'm jealous of him...