ever after
I was on the train, coming back from the careers fair in London when they stepped onto the train and sat across me. His hair was completely white and she no longer had her youthful skin. His hands were rough and tanned with all those years of labour. Hers were tiny and frail. Still, she wrapped her arms around her husband's arms.
It was so sweet just to look at them.
Of course, I dared not stare - after all it was rude to stare at people who are 'in love'.
It had been a long day today, and my journey will take another 40 minutes. So to kill the time and sleepiness I decided to take a nap.
Later, I woke up and realised she tapped my knee. She asked if I had missed my stop. It was so nice of her to wake me up out of concern that I may have missed my stop. I said no, that my stop was further away. I smiled and thanked her. And she smiled back.
We made light conversation when the train stopped at the station. She said the gap between the platform and the train was quite high, and old knees like theirs struggle with it.
As the train approached the next station, he got up from his seat slowly; after all old knees don’t move as fluid as they once did. And she stood up too.
He offered his hand to her, and she took it. Together they walked towards the door. She walked in front and held on to the support rail, and he stood behind her doing the same, protecting her as he always had.
When the train stopped, they both stepped down slowly onto the platform. She wrapped her arms around her husband’s and they walked off together.
I was glad the gap between the train and this platform station wasn't too high. I know what it feels like to have old knees and having to struggle to climb up or step down the train. Old knees are more trouble than blessing in disguise.
I was even more touched to see the husband and wife still happily in love with each other despite all the grey hairs and wrinkled skin. You don’t see something like that very often in this day and age; where people still stay together until death do them part. It is sad to see broken relationships, broken marriages, broken families, but all these are very real. So I am truly touched by these two love birds. Because today they taught me an important lesson -
That there is a ever after...
It may not be forever happy ever after, because we all know marriage is never easy. Two people in a marriage go through ups and downs, joy and sorrow, success and failures. But what matters at the end of the day is that through all that, they should emerge out from the valleys stronger with a much better understanding, respect and love for one another.
Yes, there may not be a forever happy ever after... But there is a happy ever after.
His head may be full of white hairs, and her hands may be wrinkled from all the labours of love. But their eyes still twinkle for each other...