Emerging Courageous Online Magazine

Emerging Courageous Online Magazine - Stories

"A Special Gift" by Judy Spikes

My husband, Jim, and I have been married for 38 short years. It seems like yesterday, since we fell so deeply in love. Of course, it was not love at first sight. I was only 14 when we first met, so I was not interested, or ready for a life-long commitment.

In fact, we really got on each other's nerves. He thought he was "Don Juan", strutting around, his fourteen-year-old body proclaiming him not yet a man, while his cocky attitude disagreed. A couple of years later, my older sister married his older brother. After that twist of fate, we could not help but be around each other from time to time. Soon, we both started to avoid each other like the plague!

It would be another two years, before this wall of dislike would crumble. I could finally no longer deny that his coal black hair and teasing blue eyes had caught my attention. His quick sense of humor and ready smile, only added to his charms.

I would have never believed it, but here I was, truly in love for the first time in my life, and to the one person on God's green earth that I had overlooked for so long. I did not know it at the time, but my mother and her faithful friend were praying that God would bring someone into my life. They prayed for someone who would love and cherish me, and for someone who would be a good husband and father to our children. God knew who I needed and who needed me. Therefore, I have always felt that my marriage was "made in heaven".

We were only nineteen when we married, just a couple of kids, but people married younger in those days. We had very little when it came to material things, but we had an abundance of love and joy. He was in the Navy and stationed in Homestead Florida, which was nice, but no family living nearby. We were on our own for the first time, just learning what life was all about.

As I look back across the years, I now know that not only his love, but also his good sense of humor has sustained me in times of trouble or distress. He makes me laugh, and it brings so much joy to my life.

One day, many years ago, it was my birthday, and with three children, there was usually nothing left to buy me a gift on these occasions. My husband came home from work that day, looking crestfallen as he handed me an envelope. "Baby," he said, "this is all I could afford."

Seeing his anguish, my heart went out to him, as I took the envelope he held out to me. Slipping the card out, I opened it up, just happy he had not forgotten my special day. Inside, laid a one-dollar bill. "After I bought the card, that was all I had left," he explained.

Looking into his eyes, I knew he wanted to give me the world and the funny thing is... he had been doing so each day that we had shared together since our marriage, but he just did not know it.

A bubble of laughter sprang from me, for to see that dollar bill nestled within the card, made my day! He had given me one of the best gifts of all. the gift of laughter. I hugged him reassuringly, letting him know how much his thoughtfulness meant to me. As he saw my delight, a smile broke across his face, wiping away the concern in his beautiful, blue eyes.

Since that day, he has given me many gifts for my birthday and on other special occasions. My birthday present last year was four hundred dollars, to spend as I wished. I appreciate all these tokens of love, but I will always remember the single dollar bill, that blessed me with laughter and joy.

Judy Spikes Copyright 2004
E-Mail [email protected]

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