But what is the greatest expression of love you have ever witnessed or been a part of in your life? It could be your wedding day, getting engaged, a first kiss, a love letter or poem or random act of kindness by a stranger. It could be any kind of love, including love of a child, or a friend, or parent or spouse. But if you had to single it down to the one greatest expression of love you’ve ever seen or been a part of, what would it be? It CAN be something you’ve done too, of course! Let’s leave out novels or movies please.
I will think about mine and post after I read a few responses
Well… I am HOPING that you all are just so full of stories that you are having trouble deciding just ONE to pick… so I’ll get us started, and hopefully you can join in.
I think the greatest expression of love I have seen in my life was when my grandpa cried a little when we were listening to “My woman, my woman, my wife” by Marty Robbins one day driving in his pickup truck. I noticed how he was getting choked up and normally I never saw my grandpa express any love or emotion whatsoever, but I could see behind his eyes how much he loves my grandma. He turned 91 this year and she is 82! I’m lucky to still have them both.
One time when I came home from college, I sang that song for them karaoke style, and my grandpa really loved it because he knew I was singing it for him to grandma.
Well, kinda cheesey, but there you have it! So now you have to share
My mother caring for my father as he was dying of cancer. She did it all herself, gently, granting him dignity, lessening his fears, so he could die at home with as much security and comfort as possible.
When my kids were little we had a wacko friend who had just started yoga meditation and was convinced that she could make clouds evaporate by staring at them.
Meanwhile, I was playing a lot of tennis, and I found that the hotter the temperature, the better I played, so I wanted it to always be very warm, at the least.
So one day I had a match scheduled for later in the day, and it was cloudy, cool, looked like it might rain. My kids were in the back yard, staring at the sky. They were there the whole time I was washing dishes and I wondered what they were doing. When I finished up I went outside to find out.
They were attempting to stare the clouds away and chanting “Very warm, very warm” so that I would have a good match!
I thought this was really sweet. Misguided, but sweet.
After my current husband and I had been close friends for a few months, I finally told him I was falling in love with him. We were both 19. He lived a couple of hours away at that point, and we arranged to meet one another. He came with flowers. He kissed me.
I panicked. I started crying. I said, ‘‘I can’t do this. I’m sorry, I just can’t do this.’’
I expected him to slam the door and walk out in anger.
I will never forget this. In the most soft and soothing tone, he said, ‘‘It’s okay. I just want what’s best for you.’’ And moments after I had led him on and then rejected him, he held me while I cried.
I was just floored. My husband is so quiet, and gentle, and humble, and yet somehow he never fails to be this powerful force that knocks me off my feet. After that, I didn’t stand a chance.
I can think of a few, but the one that springs to mind the most is when my family left me alone with my grandmother. I don’t know if we even said a single word to each other, but knowing that it was the last time we’d ever see each other put a profound edge on it. I would never get to see her again and the cancer was gaining on her fast. I had a good cry right after that.
A couple of years ago my last GF called me to say that her father was sick again. She gave me pretty frequent updates. Then one day she called to say that he was gone. A couple of months later she invited me to his memorial service. She pretty much organized the whole thing, as her mother was too distraught. When she gave the eulogy, she was absolutely glowing about what a great man her father was. She just beamed absolute joy. You couldn’t be in that room and not feel it.
Pretty much everything my Mom does for me is an expression of love. Nobody on this earth could ever love me as much as my Mom does. But if you want a funny one:
When I was 31 I needed some minor surgery for a second time. (“Cone biopsy”, if you’re curious. The first one didn’t catch all the abnormal cells.) Apparently during the first surgery I bled quite a bit so my Mom was really concerned this time. She said to the nurses: “If Juicy needs a blood transfusion just come get me and siphon it out. I shared my blood with her when I was pregnant and I can do it again.” (She was making a funny, but I know damn well she’d do it.)
My dad does not express emotions well (okay, at all). I don’t think he has once told me he loved me.
One day (I was 6 or 7), I fell off my bike and skidded down the road on my face. Half my face was a giant scab and I knocked myself unconscious for good measure.
When I came to, several hours later, my dad was there. He handed me a pair of baby shoes. Real baby shoes. They had to have cost a fortune.
You see, my cabbage patch kid lost a shoe in the accident and it was something he could do to make it all better.
So many things popped into my head, but this one I should share:
The last thins my grandfather told me before he died was how he suddenly saw so clearly the importance of love. He said he was just amazed that he started out just loving my grandmother, very simply, he just loved her. And now he was surrounded by this huge family who all loved him and all loved each other. And that was all built on him simply falling in love with my grandmother. I can remember so well his own amazement, and how important it seemed to him to convey this to me. The idea of love breeds love breeds love breeds love.
Even while he was really ill with cancer, he took care of every detail for my grandmother for after he died. He even bought two fully automatic wine bottle openers, because he knew she couldn’t do it!
When my husband was dying, I was loving and calm every time he woke during those last few days. I cried while he slept, but the second he woke, I was there for him, being what he needed from me. It was all I could do for him, so I was determined to do it.
After one of our day trips I was getting ready to leave my grandmother’s house.
“Wait a minute,” she said and proceeded to search the house for something to give me. Every time we parted she gave me something; one of her Dollar store washcloths she had crocheted a picot edge around, or some baby pictures of me that I didn’t have copies of, or an old Reader’s Digest with the back torn off. (Every month she saved the picture on the back and framed it and put it on her mantle. There were a lot up there.)
She came out of her bedroom, empty-handed and flustered.
“Don’t worry about it, Mom,” I said. “Give me a hug. I gotta go.”
“Wait,” she said. She went into the kitchen and I heard her in the pantry. She came out with a bottle of ketchup.
“Here. I want you to have this.”
I said, “No, Mom. I can’t. You need that!”
She pressed it into my hands. “I want you to have it,” she said. “I want to give you something.” So I took it.
My grandmother lived in a tiny house on the not-so-good side of town. She lived on a Social Security check. She went grocery shopping once a month and liked ketchup better than anything in the world. And she had just given me her month’s allotment.
One of the last times I can remember being totally and completely in love is when I was reunited with my best friend in '08. I was sitting with her Mom (who is my second mom) listening to the Friday night song swap. She came along and sat near us. “Mom” said “H. It’s AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet” H and I immeditalty went into a full body embrace, and listened to the song swap for about an hour just cuddling.
Then this past summer I gave her a poem I’d written about best friends,and I thought she was going to cry. We walked down the hill and I signed to her and said " I love you!" She said " I love you too"
