I REMEMBER SEEING HER

This is a true story and is shared at “Tell Me a True Story.”

I wondered if this mature woman could not get a husband

 

 

It was in the summer of 1948 some 65 years ago that I first saw her.

 

I had been converted during that summer revival meeting while she was on vacation. It was a couple of weeks later when she returned back to the church.

 

I was raised among ladies who applied makeup in layers and rouged their cheeks and wore bright lipstick that came off on what or whoever it touched.

Their hair was another story being whatever color they wanted.

 

In this conservative church I was attending, the women wore very little makeup if any and no lipstick leaving them with a natural look. There were a few who would put on a light color lipstick when they weren’t attending church but that was about it.

 

The woman I’m speaking of had an unusual hair treatment with and was between thirty five and forty years old I judged, and if she had a husband he wasn’t around.

 

Being new in the church I wondered if she couldn’t find a husband or why she seemed to be alone.  I knew there were several older women who as of yet weren’t married.

 

I concluded that because she was rather plain, and she appeared to be single.

 

Now you must understand these were just random thoughts I had and there were many other people I was trying to get to know.

 

As I began to put people together I realized that she indeed was married and had three children. She had two daughters and one son.  I never associated with them other than being at church services where they always attended.

 

The older daughter had what you might call a bit of an independent spirit which concerned her mother to no end and caused her to spend extra time praying for the girl and also for an unknown male person.

 

She realized this young woman was looking for a boy friend and the mother wanted her to find a Christian man.  After some time she fixed her prayers on a particular young man and she invited him over to eat Sunday dinner.

 

The young man spent most of the time on Sundays talking to the girl’s father until finally the scales fell from the young man’s eyes and he started to take interest in this young lady.

Eighteen and Lively

The young girl was a "lively young thing" which stimulated his interest and after considerable time the guy proposed to her. As the courtship heated up the wedding date kept moving until it was time for the nuptials.

 

After all the praying for an eventual husband for her daughter the mother began to worry if the fellow was going to be able to feed and take care of her. I’m not sure but I think she spent a lot of her time praying that her daughter wouldn’t starve.

 

The girl’s dad wanted the guy to go to work where he worked but the girl was totally against it for it would mean he would need to work on Sundays and miss a lot of church.

 

As it turned out the mother’s prayers prevailed and sixty five years later they are still together and overfed.

 

I observed most of what I have reported here and every once in a while the thought goes through my mind, “I wonder if she couldn’t find a husband” and it embarrasses me for it makes feel foolish.