A few days ago, David and I were talking about our life as it is now, and David commented that this the very best time of his life. I agreed. We have lived very busy lives, David studying for his master’s degree, starting a church, working at pastoring for forty years with all the meetings, counseling, studying for sermons and teaching and me working at a variety of jobs, raising a daughter, maintaining a home that was built around hospitality, and teaching.

Now, we live in one of the smallest homes we’ve ever had, there are few times a week we are required to be out and about, and our life barely resembles what we’ve known for the rest of our lives. But the thing that makes it so very good is that we are together almost 24/7 and we are close to our daughter’s family, so they pop in and out of our days.

You hear stories of couples who, when they retire, can hardly stand each other for they are always in each other’s way. We are so not like that. Our lives have been so busy that we could go days without seeing each other for more than a meal or two a day and then falling exhausted into bed at night. The rest of the time we just tried to squeeze each other into our busyness. We longed for more time together being just “us.” Now we have it and we are loving it!

The other day, David had to be home to let the man fixing our furnace into the house, so I went to pulmonary rehab alone. Afterwards, I stopped at the grocery store on my way home from Albany. Although I used the electric wheelchair at the store, by the time I got to the check out I was so exhausted I was almost in tears. The checker was kind and had someone help me out with the groceries, but when I got into the car I just sat for a moment to try to compose myself before driving home. I had to stop and thank God that almost fifty years ago He brought David and I together. We didn’t dream then of life now. We didn’t even think through what the forty-eight years of marriage it took to get here would be like.

But God knew and He planned the very best for us and gave it to us wrapped up in a big bow!

Life is so very different now than anything we’ve known, but it is so very good. It’s like God saved the best for last. I am so grateful for breath, for life, for my daughter and her family, for our church, for friends, and most of all for my wonderful husband.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, for we had great examples of wonderful husbands in our lives. David’s brother-in-law Art took such wonderful care of his sister Pauline throughout all of her illnesses, and my wonderful father lovingly cared for my mother in those hard years after her stroke. David makes my life so much easier by taking so much of the burden of our lives on himself. He makes sure I eat, take naps, and pace myself to conserve my energy. He holds me when I’m weak, and does everything he can to make my life do-able. And for him to say this is the best part of his life is such a blessing to me. I know I’m enjoying time with him, but that he enjoys it too makes it over-the-top wonderful.

Julia Ewert

October 28 at 7:01 AM ·