Love to Last a Lifetime

In, what I like to call, my former life, I had a interior designer and a mural artist.
The mural artist, Carol Cartwright, introduced me to the interior designer.
I was probably 27 years old living a privileged but empty existence.   

The interior designer had been a nurse, in her former life.
In retrospective, she may have recognized her younger self
in me.

She had been married for over 20 years and raised a family. 
The marriage was shallow and eventually ended in divorce.

While she was a nurse, she fell in love with a cardiac patient.
They married and united their grown children and ex-spouses
into a large extended family.  They celebrated holidays and even
sailed together. 

Her beloved husband passed seven years into their enchanted marriage. 
What is lucid in my recollection is her sharing:  "Those seven years filled
me like the 20 years never could."

Recognize the light bulbs of your life.
                                                 little e