Anyway, she was showing my gran this song when we were visiting with her this evening, and I couldn't help but be curious. My Grandad passed away three years ago, and seeing him and my Grandma together made me ache for that lifelong connection with someone. Whenever I would go to a wedding as a little girl, I just assigned the couple to being just like my Grandma and Grandad- utterly in love and never cross with each other.
Of course, being a grown up I found this to be an ailien concept. This generation just replaces things if they are old or broken, whereas my grandparents grew up in a culture that nurtured and looked after your lot. Whatever you had, you treated it gently and fixed it if it got broken. I wonder when the huge culture shift happened?
Anyway, I asked my grandmother how she and my Grandad, Ray, had met. She said,
" I used to go to a Saturday night meeting at the church in aber cwmboy, and your grandad's friends used to go too. One night they asked him along, and he walked me home, and things went from there really."
I LOVE that my Grandad met Grandma at a church youth meeting, and then went on to be a preacher for 50 years, with my Grandma sitting in the congregation signalling to him with her watch if he got sidetracked and talked for too long.
I asked her how he proposed...
"Well my sister invited me to go to her house for Christmas dinner, and Ray came with me (he always loved food! Especially if it was home cooked and free! Ha) and he proposed. His mum and auntie were visiting soon after and asking when the wedding would be, his mum retaliated with 'not for a long time yet!' But we were married the following March."
Her eyes lit up, and her smile broadened as she giggled and recalled,
"We chose August first, I don't know why we brought it forward but we did and everyone thought I was pregnant!"
(She wasn't by the way! Can you imagine the scandal back then?!)
"We had a huge reception, over a hundred, Ray's mum paid for the food and the whole street decorated the church hall. It was lovely, over 100 people."
I smiled. Sounds about right, my grandparents were never without friends and my Grandad always held a crowd's attention. He was such a funny gentleman!
They were married for over 50 years and my Grabdma told me he never bought her flowers, not once since cauliflowers didn't count! Yet they never fought either. Perhaps no flowers were needed when love was in bloom indefinitely.
I've read a lot of love stories but this is one of my very favourite ones.
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