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 51^st 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…