James F. "Taj" Gunter Iii
Love Runs Deeper
June 24, 2024
When you, my elderly wife, with your tear-filled eyes, approached me in the kitchen and lifted your t-shirt revealing sagging breasts, you said with a shameful apology, " I don't even recognize myself anymore. How could you possibly love me like this?"
I took two steps forward, gently embraced you and said, "True love runs much deeper," which was a more concise way of saying "deeper than sagging tits, hair and hearing loss, and easily bruised and wrinkled skin."
Even when all those things were at their aesthetic and functional best, they were never the core reasons or sources of my adoration. You remain to me just as beautiful a person beneath an aging exterior as you were the day we first met. Your daily challenge now is to not lose sight of that, to not lose faith in the internal qualities that make you beautiful, that made me attracted to you in the first place, and the very ones to which I cling to this day ...
An insatiable and determined sense of adventure, a keen adeptness for navigating the often-challenging process of building a prosperous future with limited assets and being an ever-present and persistent source of motivation to me (a man admittedly inundated with excess baggage) in avoiding life's many tempting pitfalls and staying on a disciplined course toward becoming the best husband, provider, and person I can be.
Yes indeed, love runs much deeper than these aging "shells" we see in the mirror.
With all the love and excitement I recall from our wedding day, I submit the same to you now (27 years later and generously filled with indelible memories)... as long as we both shall live... till death do us part.
Love always,
Taj
Post-script: My wife, Sally (affectionately known as "Surgee"), died on the morning of August 11, 2024 after a year-and-a-half-long battle against cancer.