The Look

Sometimes a look says more than 1,000 words.

My husband, Jim, and I recently celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. I hope if you're married that you're still able to look at your husband or wife with love. I hope that time has not diminished, but enhanced, the love you feel for your spouse. And I hope you thank God every day for your marriage.

NASHVILLE, TN - Ten years ago, for our 15th anniversary, I arranged for my husband to take two days off and travel to Auburn, Ind., for an annual classic car auction. The six-day event is always held before, during and after the Labor Day weekend, and draws thousands of automobiles and tens of thousands of buyers, sellers and lookers.

Jim left Thursday, Sept. 1, with five other gentlemen from our car club. On Friday, Sept. 2, I picked up the kids from school and we drove to Grandma's house in Quincy, Ill. She graciously agreed to watch Christopher, Michael and Samantha over the three-day weekend so I could join my husband at the auction. I drove across Illinois Friday night and woke up early Saturday morning to finish the trek to Auburn. I tried several times to call Jim on his cell phone, letting him know I was about an hour ahead of schedule, but I was never able to reach him. So I called a friend's cell phone, and two of the car club guys met me at the front gate. They whisked me off in the golf cart to go find my husband.
   

None of this is particularly interesting, I know, and I'm sorry about that. What struck me was the look on my husband's face when I rode up to him on that golf cart. It was a look of joy. I will never forget that look as long as I live. So many years together and I still elicited that look from my husband. What a blessing.
    
A few months ago I started to think about other married couples. I know how lucky I am, and I'm not naive enough to think that everyone has the marriage that I have. But a girl can dream, can't she? My ever-growing faith in the institution of marriage was given a proverbial shot in the arm on a warm Friday September night. Not that my faith in marriage needed a shot in the arm, but it was nice to see that "look" between another married couple.
    
Every once in a while our neighbors get together for cards. We rotate houses and the host family usually breaks out the good cashews, etc. Jim didn't attend the last card game - he needed to wash his car and study for an upcoming test. I decided to join the group and it was quite a nice turnout. I guess it was around 8:30 p.m. or so. Jim appeared in the basement of our next-door neighbor's house.
    
"Bob you need to come quick," he said. "Carol is outside on the ground."
    
Bob went up the stairs first. Jim was next, followed by me and the rest of the card gang.
    
Carol was sitting in the middle of the cul-de-sac. She hadn't fallen or fainted, but she was walking either to or from the card game when she became very dizzy and nauseous. She called to Jim, who wasn't 20 feet from her washing the car. The radio was on in our garage, however, and Jim didn't hear her. She called again, and he found her in the middle of the street. She asked him to get her husband.
    
"This is the second time this has happened," Bob said to his wife.
    
"I know," she replied. Carol sat for a minute or two and tried to stand up.
    
Bob and Jim gently brought her to her feet, and helped her inside her house.   
    
"You have to go to the doctor now," he said.
 
 
She refused, he pleaded, and she refused again. I found this particularly amusing because I know Bob's been to the emergency room at least twice in the time we've lived in O'Fallon, and I'm sure Carol didn't allow him to refuse the trip. Two more neighbor ladies joined Bob and Carol in their home and pleaded with Carol to go to the emergency room. I walked in about 60 seconds later to bring Carol's glasses to her. I found her still profusely but politely refusing a trip to the emergency room, until one neighbor walked out of the bedroom to call 9-1-1. Her symptoms, they worried, might be stroke related.
    
"All right, I'll go," Carol said.
    
Bob left the bedroom, headed toward the garage. I caught him half way.
    
"Do you want me to go?" I asked.
    
"What?" he replied as he turned around.
    
I saw that look again. It was a look that could only come from someone who loved his wife so much that he couldn't imagine life without her.
    
"I'll drive," I said.
    
Bob sat in the back of the car with his wife as I drove us to the emergency room. We talked, played Yatzee games brought later in the evening by two more friends, and waited. Bob, Carol and I made it home around 2 a.m. Carol was fine, and tests revealed no strokes.
    
On Saturday I began to think about the chaotic events of the night before. I put it all in a credit card commercial. Cost to play cards on Friday night? $10. Trip to the emergency room? Thank goodness for insurance. Seeing "the look" between a man and his wife? Priceless.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'

Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online