TOGETHER

TOGETHER

You are always foremost in my thoughts

never an afterthought

You are forever held close in my heart

my heart is yours

When life was but a breath

we breathed together

From the first I love you to the last

our love goes on.

John A. Bayerl, December 14, 2011

Rain is dripping off the cast-iron school bell mounted atop a pole in our back yard.  I am reminded of the fun Gwen and I had searching for that bell when we moved from the Forestbrooke subdivision to our home on Baseline Lake.  She insisted that our yard was incomplete if it didn't include a wagon wheel and a bell mounted on a pole.  We perused antique stores and the Treasure Mart in Ann Arbor in search of a bell, when, quite by accident, we found an ad in the newspaper.  A local farmer had decided to move into town, and our perfect old school bell,  as well as an old wagon wheel, were offered for sale.  We snapped them up immediately, and they soon decorated our yard. 

 On this rainy, cold, dreary December day crows have gathered in the barren oak tree back along the fence.  What an Edgar Allen Poe image that is!   Even that can't chill the warm feeling I have in my heart as I remember another of the endearing things about the woman who completed my life.  When she decided she wanted something, be it an antique school bell or a B. S. Degree in nursing, she simply went out and got it.  I've never had a doubt that when she decided that I would be the one to complete her life I didn't have a chance. I have never stopped being grateful for the time she said, "John, we should get married;  no matter what."  

Dear, the sappy, sentimental poem I've included with this only begins to speak of the miracle we know our love to be.