The cutest love is elderly.
Okay, that doesn’t sound particularly attractive or even remotely appealing, but it’s true.
I went to visit my grandparents the other day, and for some reason, something occurred to me that had never occurred to me before: they were very much in love.
My grandmother has been (nearly) bedridden for quite some time now (the result of incessant smoking from an early age), and has been confined mostly to the bedroom on the second-floor of their home. She has cable (a modern-day necessity that I keep begging my father to invest in), so she’s occupied during the day, and has frequent visitors. Her brand new cell phone never leaves her side, and she’s always quick to show you her new Hawaiian-sounding ringtone. She’s technologically savvy (somewhat) and has a stack of Archie comic books to occupy her in case nothing on her 300+ channels suits her fancy. I don’t think she minds her situation much.
My grandfather, on the other hand, is a country boy through and through. His “garden” spans for several acres, and is riddled with corn, tomatoes, squash, pears, apples, cucumbers, asparagus, potatoes…if it can grow, he’s grown it. He slaves in the elements for hours on end, winter through summer, year after year, and has now taken on the domestic responsibilities as well. He certainly has a green thumb, and I’d say that the rest of his seven fingers are fairly green as well (he blew the others off when he was little: two while playing with a stick of dynamite and one while chopping wood). Cooking, cleaning, you name it. He’d upstage Martha Stewart any day…and she has all ten fingers.
It’s needless to say that they are two exact opposites…but, as the saying goes, opposites attract.
In this case, they most certainly do.
It was my birthday and my grandmother’s birthday (April 9th, for those of you who didn’t know), so we rendezvoused to exchange pleasantries and gifts on the big day. The mood was light, the TV was off, and their two Cocker Spaniels were surprisingly behaved.
That’s when I noticed. There wasn’t enough room for us all to sit down, so my side of the family all smushed onto one bed, while Mema sat up in hers and Pop sat at the foot of it. The foot of the bed, and her foot, that is. She slapped him for his mishap and he laughed…and for a brief moment, it was as if they were just two of my friends, a cute couple flirting and laughing and just loving life as it has been handed them.
Who’s to say that their love has lessened with age?
From where I sit, love has no expiration date.
xoxo e
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