Just days after Daddy’s death, Brother Gobel, a Pentecostal preacher, paid a condolence call to Mother. A Bantam Rooster of a man, he was bow-legged, bald and not much taller than she, a stark contrast to the tall, handsome husband she was still mourning. He drank coffee, prayed with her, as ministers on visits normally do, and took his leave. Thinking no more of it, Mother was shocked to get a letter from him a few days later. Even more startling, was the fact that it included an epic poem of love telling of his devotion and hopes for their future together, followed up with a marriage proposal, and some appropriate Biblical quotations about the role of wives, remarking that he’d always admired what a dutiful wife she had been, waiting on Daddy hand and foot. Wisely, she pitched the letter in the trash. Unwisely, she told me about it. One of my great regrets in life is that she never shared that poem with me. It would have my life, and yours, so much richer.
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