I made one of the most important decisions in my life when I was eleven years old after having a conversation with my grandfather. Every summer, I would go visit him in a small town in Alabama. Every morning, I would wake up to discover that he had gone on a walk and I always wondered where he went. One morning, I waited for him on the porch until he returned, and I asked him, “Grandaddy, where do you go every morning?” He said, “I go to talk with my best friend – your grandmother.” My grandmother had been dead for about five years by this time. But my grandfather would get up at the crack of dawn 6 out of 7 days of the week and walk two miles down a dirt road with his cane to the cemetery, where he would sit next to her headstone and be there for hours. He was almost 90 years old and he still visited her every day.
I then asked my grandfather, “Why do you make that long walk every day?” He answered, “Because your grandmother was my best friend. She made me feel like I could take over the world, and there was nothing I wouldn’t do for her. You know, the first time I kissed Louise was on our wedding day when the minister said, ‘You may now kiss the bride.’ ”
My grandparents were married for almost 70 years, and they had 12 children! The one part I remember most about that conversation with my grandfather is when he said, “You know, Lakita, I don’t know anything about any other woman, and I don’t want to because, Louise, she was the stuff.” That’s when I thought to myself, that’s the kind of love I want.
I made a decision that day that I would rather be with one person for 70 years than be with 70 people in 70 years. I made a decision to save my heart and my body for the man I will one day marry and will love for the rest of my life. (A true story)
“I ’d rather be in love with one person for 70 years than 70 different people over 70 years.”
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