Fifty One
I followed dozens of my classmates from high school to Mississippi
State University where I quickly stopped walking with the Lord. Three months
into that first semester the Lord really got my attention and made me realize
that I did not have any real friends—only “party friends.”
During that time I begin to pray and the Lord led me to transfer
in the middle of my freshman year to Mississippi College. There I met Cheryl
Keathley from Memphis, Tennessee. I joined a performing choir because they
desperately needed tenors. Up until that time I could barely read music—much less
know that I was a tenor! In choir rehearsals I could watch that beautiful young
lady with strawberry blonde hair playing the piano from where I was seated as I
looked at the conductor. She captured my attention, and we began to spend time together.
We were attracted to each other because even though we were
so different from each other in the way we grew up and some of the things that
we liked to do, but after a few weeks we were in love and those differences
faded. I had dated several girls in high school and in college before I met
Cheryl, but not one of them won my heart like Cheryl did.
We met each other’s families during that first semester of
dating. She planned to go to summer school that first summer after we met, and
I wanted to be near her so badly, that I planned on going to summer school,
also. During that time I was working at Borden’s Dairy on the cleanup crew in
the ice cream factory, so I did not get back to the dorm until 11-12 pm each
night. The dorm doors were closed at 11 pm during the week, but I could count
on Cheryl looking our her dorm window watching for me to arrive at my dorm down
the hill from her dorm. I would blink my bright lights up the hill to wish her
a good night and to remind her that I loved her.
That was 53 years ago, and she still makes me blink my
lights. Today is our 51st wedding anniversary. It is difficult to
imagine, but I love Cheryl so much more than I did 51 years ago. She has been
the rudder that has guided our marriage to be a strong one. She has been the steady
deliberate one who has kept me straight and sane during these years of living
in seven different countries on three continents. If I have been successful in
anything it is because she has been my hardest critic and my biggest cheerleader.
My dear Cheryl, you bring out the very best in me and you
are the perfect life soul mate for me. I am thankful to the Lord for giving me
every moment of my life, and I am thankful to the Lord for giving you to me for
you make every moment priceless. With all my love…