Always and Forever

Jack watched his wife Mary as she knelt weeding, not seeing the grey hair or the slight stoop, not even the stick she now needed to walk. He only saw the bubbly 20 year old he’d met on VE night, and had immediately fallen in love with. He saw the happiness and excitement they’d shared in those days of so much promise. Then he saw her on the day she agreed to marry him, and they’d vowed to love each other, always and forever.
She groaned a little as she struggled back to her feet, and he remembered how they would walk for hours, hand in hand, never a groan or struggle then, just countless plans and dreams.
He saw sadness in her eyes, but thought only of the way she would look when she wanted something with a smile that could melt any resolve he had to deny her. Then there was the other look, the one that said all was not well, the one that made him want to hold her tight and keep the world away.
He remembered their shared joy at the birth of their sweet Barbara, then the sadness and emptiness 8 years later, when she was suddenly taken from them. How throughout all the years, they had never forgotten her, and yet somehow carried on.
He saw a tear in her eye, and put his arm around her shoulder, placing a gentle kiss on her cheek, her only reaction a slight shiver. They stood and read the familiar words on the headstone, ‘In Loving Memory of Jack Reynolds Beloved Husband of Mary’
He stood back, as leaning heavily on her stick, she bent to place the flowers she had brought, and then smiled as she gently patted the headstone, whispering “Always and forever Jack, always and forever.”