Until Death Do We Part

By Victoria Rose

The author was born and raised in a small West Virginia town among the hills and mountains she so loves. Her family tree, however, has very deeply planted roots in the Carolinas of the South.

Her Great Grandmother lived to be over ninety years old, but never left the small city where she raised her family in Northern North Carolina.

Her Grandmother moved to Western West Virginia in the roaring 20s and settled down in a small town near the Kentucky border, at the point where the Big Sandy River flows into the Great Ohio River. The author was later born in the same area and remains there to this day.

The author has been afforded the opportunity of raising three wonderful children, who all have left the area, other than one son, who remains.

The two female children have provided her with three marvelous grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter. The authors eldest granddaughter and great granddaughter has returned and established their abode in the same geographical area.

The author lives with her husband of forty-five years, and looks forward to completing their earthly lifetime together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 9, 2006
• ISBN: 9781465330994

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

This story, my story, of love and devotion begins by describing a little bit about the closeness my husband and I share together.

We are a couple that enjoys spending every minute we can together. We enjoy holding hands while walking down the street. We have had young people ask us how long we have been married, and when we tell them, they have said they thought we were newlyweds. We laugh and tell them, well that’s the way we like to feel all the time. I have noticed when I see other couples walking and holding hands how good it makes me feel.

We have two grown daughters, one son, three grandchildren, (two girls a boy), and one great granddaughter. We cherish them all, they are the apples of our eye, which are the feeling of every parent, and grandparent, I’m sure. When our children were growing up, we had so much fun raising them, and enjoyed every minute doing so.

We enjoyed taking them to all the fun places we could think of. We spent most of our vacations on the Atlantic coast at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We all loved the warm breeze, sea gulls, and hoping for a glimpse of a dolphin diving around out in the ocean. Although our week there always went so fast, we felt that was the way it always happens when you’re having so much fun. At least that’s what they say. But we always had a lot of souvenirs to take home: Sea shells which always have a lot of sand in them that we forgot to shake out before packed them up. Oh well, the sand made a good souvenir too.

We have great pictures we can pull out, especially the ones with sand castles, and inflatable duck floats the Children used to wear around their waist, just to wade around in. There are also pictures of real rafts we used to do some serious floating while riding the waves.

As for me and my husband, including the balance of our family, it’s still our favorite place to visit. But as the years came and went, we knew some day when our children grew up, they would venture out on their own and live their lives. We knew then it would be time for my husband and me to go back to being the two of us, and enjoying living in that way.

We are looking forward to the time my husband can retire, and are looking forward to taking walks together, and just enjoying everyday life: Oh yes, especially the ocean together. We go there now by ourselves at least once a year, on our wedding anniversary. We put our feet up and mainly just rest while enjoying watching the ocean from the balcony of our beach house. We also enjoy taking walks on the beach while enjoying the ocean air. We usually get out our camera equipment and try to get some prize pictures. Of course we are still working on those!

Occasionally, we are able to have another week of vacation when we get all of our children and grandchildren together for a visit to Myrtle Beach. We enjoy the ocean and of course the pleasures of having our family all together again. Both types of vacations, alone or with the family, are very enjoyable in different ways, but very nice. Anyway, that’s just the kind of family we are.

CHAPTER TWO

I would like to take you back to the beginning and explain a little about how my husband and I met, and how our life together, and our family all started.

It was during the summer of 1954. It was a beautiful summer day, about three weeks before I started Junior High School. We were twelve years old at the time, both of us nearing thirteen. My husband was born in September, and I in October. That summer day we met was the first week of August. My girlfriend and I decided to take a walk to a little soda fountain, right down the street from where I lived, located inside a local drugstore.

My husband to be, just by happenstance, come into the fountain a little while after we did, accompanied with a friend of his. It turns out my girlfriend knew him from the skating ring, and decided to introduce us. And when she did, we talked and had an enjoyable time. When time to leave, he wanted to walk me home. Well that became a different thing because I still wasn’t thrilled at the thought of boys, so I told him my father didn’t allow me to date yet. So he and his friend left and went on home.

The summer days come and went, and then school finally started. It was the first day and everyone was very excited, you know how it always is: I was walking up to the front door entrance to the school when I noticed him standing right out front talking to a group of other students. I noticed he looked much older, and was very handsome, especially for a young man of thirteen.

As I walked by he reached out and grabbed me by the arm, and looked me straight in the face and said, Hi stuck up, aren’t you even going to speak to me. It was then I noticed how nice and handsome he was.

I don’t know how to explain it; it was love at first sight.

Time came and went and with our everyday school work, and activities, but we never dated that year because I was so young. I just did the normal things seventh graders do: skating, going to the movies with the girls my own age. The school year went pretty fast, and then the summer was here before you knew it.

Summer was the best time for skating because you didn’t have to be home that early to get to bed, like when you are going to school. Skating usually lasted until about Ten P.M.

About the only time I got to see him now, was when I passed him at the movie show, or skating. Once there was a carnival in town, and I did see him there with a couple of his friends. We just said hello during passing each other, mainly because I was just too shy to say anything more.

The days came and went, and it was now approaching late summer. It was getting close to school starting up a new year once again. I was looking forward to going into the eight grade class work.

Looking back upon that time in my life now, I really believed that I was a pretty knowledgeable and mature person.

CHAPTER THREE

The day for school to start was finally here, and I was looking forward to my first day in the eighth grade. I will say I was wondering if that young man would be anywhere around when I arrived at school that morning. School was a lot of fun, especially at lunch. They would play music in the