Making an elderly couple cry

Recently, at Cracker Barrel, I made an elderly couple cry. I would do it all over again tomorrow, too, if I could.

One of my sons and two of my daughters were with me. I hope they learn to make others cry, too.

I noticed the old man, shaking from Parkinson’s Disease, out of the corner of my eye, wearing a USS Perkins cap on his gray head.

(The Navy destroyer, USS Perkins, served in WWII. My 11 year-old son knew this. I did not.)

I asked him if he had served in WWII and he said he was on that ship for 17 months. In fact, he proudly declared, he was in Japan when the peace treaty was signed.

Just about then his wife arrived at their table, using a walker. In spite of his rapid tremors and difficulty walking, he stood up in order to let her slip past so she could sit on the inside chair. There they were, sitting on the same side of the table like two love birds! Precious!

This couple captured my heart.

He said they’ve been married for 76 years.

She said he’s the most wonderful man in the whole world.

He said he pays her well to say those things.

She said she’s a woman who speaks her own mind and that he truly is the best man ever.

I asked if they eat at Cracker Barrel often.

Apparently they eat lunch there every day. Even the waitress knew their order before they spoke a word of it.

I asked if they enjoy a senior discount. He smiled a sheepish grin and told me that they are allowed to order off the children’s menu. Adorable!

That’s when I knew making them cry was my appointed duty that day.

I asked if they would allow me to buy their meal.

For a bit, I thought they couldn’t hear me because she looked confused and shook her head in what seemed like disagreement. So, I asked him if he would mind if I bought their meal. He nodded his approval.

She said “Oh dear,” when I got their check from the waitress.

After returning from the cashier, I told them their meal was paid for, and as I handed them a gift card, I told them that their next 4 meals were also covered by the Lord God Almighty. I explained that I am just the blessed servant who gets to do this for them today.

She asked me to repeat for her who I said was paying for their meals.

I told them about the people in front of us at the In-N-Out Burger drive-thru who bought my large family our meal only a few days before that. Then, I told her that in the same as I had been blessed, our Great God wanted to bless them, too. It was His money paying for their meals.

Tears flowed freely from both of them, but even through the tears, I saw a sparkle in his eyes. His voice trembled as rapidly as his hands shook from Parkinson’s Disease and he said he wanted to tell me a blessing story.

Many years ago in North Carolina, a grandmother and her two granddaughters traveled 100 miles to a general store for supplies. The store owner’s 5 year-old son did something naughty and the older granddaughter said that the boy “ort” [ought] to be spanked, but the younger granddaughter said he “ort not” be spanked.

Fifteen years later, the store owner’s son and that young granddaughter met again. Her grandmother recognized the teen as the naughty 5 year-old boy and she told the pair of teens the story from 10 years prior. The WWII Veteran continued his story with this revealing detail that from that day on, the store owner’s son and the young granddaughter were inseparable. That was 78 years ago.

He ended his story with, “She’s my gift from God.”

I looked at his beautiful bride, eyes drooping from age with tears pouring down her wrinkled, sagging face. They are still in love. They testified of God’s blessing of enduring love through many hardships as a Southern Baptist pastor for 50 years and that’s when they made me cry.

As a single mom on a tight budget, I feel like the money I spent that day brought abundant returns to me and to my children. I don’t need a reward in heaven for this act of kindness. I already received my reward by way of the precious intimacy I experienced with strangers and the joy of making them cry!

Unless God plans for me to live to be 130 years old, I won’t ever get to enjoy 76 years of marriage. But I’ll tell ya what, I won’t settle for any less of a man.

Psalm 65:11, “You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.”

Copyright © 2014 Deborah Rice, PeaPodFamilyPress