Enduring Love

By Caroline Clemmons

Years ago there was a comedy segment on Saturday Night Live called “That Was The Week That Was.” I don’t watch SNL so I don’t know if they still have that bit. I doubt it. Here is my version:

I had an asthma attack that would not improve. Even using my breathing machine didn’t help much. I’d been on oxygen a few days and that helped. 

Then the power went off.

I know other parts of the country deal with this problem every winter. The thing is, here in North Central Texas we are not accustomed to snow and power outages. It’s been six years since we had a measurable snowfall in Fort Worth.

We don’t have generators and snow blowers and all the snow toys of further north. When something like this happens, we are stuck. Hero and I tried to tough out the storm. We piled comforters on the bed and I stayed in bed. Hero wouldn’t—he prowled the house to make sure it was all right. He checked on me to make sure my oxygen level was high enough. Yep, he’s a worrier/warrior.

Our daughter across town had power, so we went to her house. Another storm was predicted so we hurried. That meant we didn’t really prepare as well as we thought we had. And I ran out of oxygen.

My level dropped way below where I was supposed to go to the ER. Hero tried to get more oxygen delivered. With the snowstorm the company wouldn’t send anyone. They patched him to the EMS, who brought oxygen for me to use until the ambulance arrived.

Yes, I had to go to the hospital. The staff members at Baylor/All Saints/Scott and White were wonderful. The main problem was overcrowding. I spent part of the day on a gurney in the hall.

Unfortunately, we came home to several inches of water from a burst pipe. Our neighbor had thought he turned off our water for us. How were any of us to know the shut off valve to the city didn't work? Our wonderful neighbors came over and used our shop vac to clean up the water. Hero found the leak in our ice maker and we have water again. See how clever he is? 

You are probably wondering what all this has to do with Love In Bloom. Here you have a man who has Parkinson’s but who is busy taking care of me. The late Erma Bombeck expressed that this is true love, not the flowery Romeo and Juliet stories. Enduring love means you care about the other person more than yourself.

Hero and I have been married a lot of years. He still makes my toes curl when he kisses me. He knows the meaning of the word LOVE. I’m so lucky to be married to him.

  

Romance is a perennial, not an annual by Peggy Jaeger

This month's topic is Romance in Bloom. A cute theme since we are in the merry month of May when most of our country has flowers in bloom, or at least is starting to. Thankfully, Covid hasn't spread to plants.

 The months of April to June - typically what we refer to as Springtime - are when gardeners begin cultivating and planting the crops/flowers they want to grow. It's a time of birth and, in some cases, renewal, where we see perennial flowers come back from dormancy and hibernation. If you know anything about gardening, you recognize that annuals are plants or crops you plant once a year, they grow, and then they die. If you want to see them again next year, you have to plant them again next year. Perennials are flowers that come back year after year - if you take care of them, that is. Nothing grows from neglect.

I tend to think romance and love are perennials.

Let me 'esplain.

People celebrate the "date" something happened in varying ways. Wedding anniversaries come around once a year. The date is fixed and there are some that are 'celebrated' more than others, such as years 1, 5, 10, 25...you get the picture. Once per year you make a big fuss over the date you got hitched. I got married on December 26, 1987, the day after Christmas ( also another day we celebrate once a year)

Some celebrate the day they had their first date. For me it was October 27,1993. I'll never forget the date because it was close to Halloween ( another perennial event).

Engagements are another date people tend to remember and celebrate - or at least think of. I got engaged on New Year's Eve 1996. ( Again, another date we celebrate once a year - see a pattern here yet?)

So, why do I see romance as  perennial?

Easy.

Here's the Webster's definition of perennial: lasting or existing for a long or apparently infinite time; enduring or continually recurring. 

Doesn't that sound like the kind of love and romance you want in your life? Or are lucky enough to have? Lasting for infinity. Enduring. Recurring.

Sounds good to me, no?

I received some very sound advice from an elderly patient who happened to be a florist, long ago right before I got married. He told me that the secret to staying happy in marriage for eternity ( he'd been married 60+ years) was to do  3 things:  weed out the little problems before they overgrew and took over,  always talk to one another ( he believed in talking and singing to his flowers) and cultivate the relationship daily by always remembering that love was a living force and needed to be cared for, otherwise it would wither and die.

Sound advice that I took to heart. And because of it, my marriage has lasted 33 years. If that's not the definition of perennial....

And speaking of love, my newest book released last week. VANILLA WITH A TWIST is a sweet romance about a small town, single parent,  the choices she's made in her life, and an engineer at a crossroads in his who walks into her ice cream parlor one summer day and changes her life - and his - forever.

And don't forget to enter our monthly giveaway here: GEMS IN BLOOM



Now, go care for and cultivate your relationships!

Until next month, lovely readers ~ Peg

LOVE AND FLOWERS IN BLOOM

By Caroline Clemmons

Our theme this month at Romance Gems is Love in Bloom. I hope love is blooming at your home along with whatever flowers you’ve planted. Our recent three-inch rain appears to have made our plants happy. I’m not sure if the seeds we planted floated away or were encouraged to sprout. Time will tell.

Why did I plant seeds instead of bedding plants? I wanted to emulate my maternal grandmother, who planted seeds each year. And, since Mother’s Day occurs in May, today I want to honor my maternal grandmother, Frances Josephine Gamble.

Caroline Phlox

Grandmother loved her flowers. For most of my childhood she lived where water was scarce. Summer always brought water rationing so she could only water her vegetable garden regularly. Flowers were allowed scarce amounts of water once weekly.

Salvia

Grandmother combated this by planting flowers that could thrive on little water. Those I remember were a giant lantana, iris, giant pink Carolina phlox, and purple and white salvia. Most prevalent were her petunias. I read somewhere that we can’t recall a smell but that’s not true. I can call up the sweet smell of petunias from my grandmother’s yard.

Frances Josephine Gamble Phifer Reynolds

She was sixty-nine when this photo was taken. The cousin to whom I’m closest agreed that this is our favorite photo of our grandmother. This is how I remember her, even though she lived to be ninety-one.

Perhaps her love for her flowers caused them to thrive in spite of drought. Although this is not the “love in bloom” associated with romance novels, Grandmother proved love creates blooms. In the same way, she loved her family. Somehow, she made each of us grandchildren feel as if we were her favorite. Going to visit her was always a treat.

Even before her father died when she was ten she had a difficult life. She outlived two husbands and two of her children, the first of whom died a few days old of respiratory failure and the second who died of consumption as a young mother. As long as I can remember, Grandmother looked ancient but didn’t change much in appearance during my lifetime. One reason is probably that when I was six, she moved from the farm into town and her life got a lot easier.

If you're looking for something cheerful to read, why not try MAIL-ORDER BEATRICE, one of the Widows, Brides, and Secret Babies Series of sweet historical western romances. You'll fall in love with Beatrice and Tate while they fall in love. Beatrice will only by pushed so far and then, watch out!

Here's the blurb:

Beatrice “Attie” Kendall has to escape from home with her six-week-old son. With the help of her kind brother, she goes to Atlanta where she consults a matchmaker. After the hard life Attie’s been dealt for her twenty years, she’ll finally have a good home with nice people and a friend nearby.  In fact, her husband and their home seem too good to be true. Does she dare trust that her life has really changed?

Tate Merritt isn’t ready to get married but he gives in to his grandfather’s coercing. Grandpa raised him and Tate tries to please the older man. Tate doesn’t know what to think about this mail-order bride. She isn’t at all the wife he imagined—plus, she showed up with a baby! The child’s a cute little thing but Tate isn’t sure how he feels about her surprising him. How can he trust a woman whose story keeps changing?

Life presents obstacles to further complicate Attie and Tate’s marriage. They’ll have to work together to solve their problems and protect their family.  Can they trust one another enough to make this marriage work?

The Universal Amazon Link is https://mybook.to/Attie. MAIL-ORDER BEATRICE is available in e-book and print and is FREE in KU.

I hope this month has brought you love and flowers in bloom. Don’t forget to sign up for our LOVE IN BLOOM Rafflecopter.

  a Rafflecopter giveaway