"Still"...George
His love was sunlight
on the uplifted daffodil of her being,
turning all her yellows into gold.
It swirled,
cape-like,
before her
atop the puddles of her life.
As cashmere,
draping on her shoulders,
his love was
warm...
and soft.
Neither Robert
nor
Elizabeth
expressed in Browning-verse
A tenderness more
exquisite
than was his.
He brought her flowers,
not just petalled blossoms,
but
whole fields of flowers in his
blue,
blue
eyes,
high mountain meadows of them
in his song,
secret gardens as
his fingers
touched
her hand.
He loved her
fiercely,
privately,
in his lion-hearted way.
Yet-
loved her
freely,
openly,
wanting all to know
THIS woman
was his love.
An anointing oil,
his love ran down her being,
giving rest in its fair benediction.
Sailing
into his harbor,
she was safe,
and moored her being close to his.
The rivers of his words
brought peace.
The fountains of his song
gave joy.
His very oakness sheltered all her life
as
hand-in-hand
they climbed the mountain paths
together.
And even
when the oak of him
was
felled,
roots torn from the yielding earth...
An empty place
on her life's horizon
where once were stoutest branches
lifted to the sky.
And all her soul became
a
single
teardrop
Sliding
down
the hole
where he had grown;
Her fountains stilled,
her rivers running dry,
her shoulders cold,
her puddles wide,
her meadows deep in snow;
But God,
smiling on their love in life,
smiled
still.
For what had been the ageless question:
"IF God choose...?"
was fact.
And on a silent
lonely
evening
Easter morning wrapped her in its sudden light
And she knew...
she KNEW
with all that lay within her
"He DOES but love me
better
after death!"
(by Jo Anzalone 3-31-97)
Written for my dear friend, Marjorie Holmes, when her husband, George, died. She actually had an experience like this while sitting alone at her kitchen table, grieving for him. What I write here of how he cared for her...all of it...is how he actually did. George was a doctor...of the sort enormously beloved by all his patients. He reminded me of the actor Walter Pidgeon in looks and size, had the bluest eyes, brought Marjorie a fresh flower every day of their decade together, and sang love songs to her. He was courtly...a gentleman through and through...loved dogs...and laughed a lot.
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http://www3.isrl.uiuc.edu/~unsworth/courses/bestsellers/search.cgi?title=Two+from+Galilee
Marjorie Holmes was born on September 22, 1910 in Storm Lake, Iowa to
Samuel Arthur (a tractor salesman) and Rose (Griffith) Holmes. From a young
age, Holmes took an interest in writing and developed a talent for the
skill. Holmes claims to have written her first novel, a story of the local
grocery boy, at the age of twelve. Holmes' English teacher, Miss Dewey Deal,
noticed the young writer's early efforts and wrote the following words on an
English paper: "You must make the most of your talent...you can write
beautiful things for people who crave beauty- there is a duty." Holmes kept
those words and often used them as a source of encouragement when she later
became discouraged about her writing.
Holmes graduated from high school at the age of sixteen and then from
Cornell College in Mount Vernon at the age of twenty. While working as a
secretary at the State University of Iowa, she met Lynn Burton Mighell, a
graduate engineering student. On April 9, 1932, they were married, after
which they moved to Rio Grande Valley in Texas to raise cabbages. Shortly
after their move to Texas and their first of four children was born, their
attempts at raising and selling cabbages flopped. "Oh God, we were so poor"
(People Weekly, 116), she said. Holmes began writing for short stories and
poems for magazines, and in 1943, she published her first novel, World by
the Tail- a story about an Iowa family tackling the challenges of the
Depression. In 1947, Holmes published her second novel, Ten o'Clock Scholar,
the story of a young superintendent's career and passion to improve the
public schools.
Holmes has written short stories, articles, columns and poetry to magazines
such as Ladies' Home Journal, Reader's Digest, Woman's Day, Redbook,
McCall's, and Family Circle. Between 1959 and 1973, she wrote a biweekly
column called "Love and Laughter" for the Washington D.C. Star. In addition,
from 1971 to 1977, she was the author of the Woman's Day monthly column, "A
Woman's Conversation with God." Holmes has also served as a teacher of
writing. From 1959 to 1981, she taught at the Georgetown University Summer
Writers Conference, from 1964 to 1965 at Catholic University, from 1967 to
1968 at the University of Maryland, at the Philadelphia Writers Conference,
and at the Cape Cod Writers Conference.
On Christmas Eve, 1963, while attending a midnight Mass, Holmes was inspired
to write a story about Mary and Joseph. As she said, "I could smell the hay
and it struck me that this was the greatest love story of all time." In
1972, she titled and published her story, Two from Galilee: A Love Story.
The novel appeared on the New York Times bestseller list and was one of the
ten best-selling novels of that year. "[Two from Galilee] means more to me
than anything else I have ever written," she told Dallas News. "If I had
never written anything else besides this book, I would still feel like I had
accomplished something" (Contemporary Authors Online). Holmes' intention
behind the novel was to bring Mary and Joseph "out of the art galleries and
take away the gold frames and halos which create a barrier for us. I wanted
to show them as two people confronted with the great honor but also the
great responsibility of serving as the earthly parents of the Christ child"
(Contemporary Authors Online).
While Holmes gained success in the literary world, her husband climbed the
ladder in the business world, eventually becoming top executive with the
Carrier Corporation. In 1979, after years of illness, her husband died of
cancer. After forty-seven years of marriage and four children, Holmes found
herself a widow. "Each day," she said, "I would stand on my terrace and say
'Please God, send me a wonderful man'" (People Weekly, 117).
In 1981, at the age of 70, Holmes met George Schmieler, age 71, who had also
just lost his spouse after nearly fifty years of marriage. The story behind
how the two met sounds similar to a fairy tale. Six months after Schmieler's
wife had died, he found a book his wife had been reading called I've Got to
Talk to Somebody, God by Marjorie Holmes. Six weeks later, after Schmieler
had read the book, "he traced Holmes through relatives, dialed her unlisted
number and announced, 'I love you. You saved my life'" (People Weekly, 115).
On July 4, 1981, nineteen weeks after Holmes agreed to meet Schmieler, they
were married. "We are convinced that this was the work of God," said Holmes.
"We're two people who were absolutely right for one another, brought
together under unusual circumstances" (People Weekly, 115). After 10 years
of marriage, Schmieler too died from cancer in 1991. In 1993, Holmes wrote
the novel, Second Wife, Second Life!, based upon her marriage to Schmieler.