Write brain exercise day six

I am a slacker - no actually it has been a busy day...Today's assignment was to write a story that began "back in 1938, before..." So since I am no history buff and research was not on the top of my list today (especially for something other than my novels.) here is my interpretation:

“Back in 1938, before the war,” my grandmother began. “It was a time before tragedy and time before the death.”

That is how she always would start her stories about the way she and Grandpa spent their time. Grandma was only 17 that year. She believed that the world was good and the United States was strong. The two of them would spend evenings sitting on the beach watching the sun set. Perhaps my favorite story is the one she always tells when she starts to miss Grandpa, the story about the night he asked her to be his wife.

The sun had just touched the water, filling the sky with magnificent colors of warmth, oranges, reds, yellows and even purples. They sat on the beach, my grandmother with her knees pulled up under her chin, thinking of everything the future held – the many more sunsets that they would see together. Grandpa turned to her and pulled her hands to make her look at him. He professed his love and how he feared that the disasters of the world would soon reach that very shore. He begged her to make his life complete and to be his bride. Tears rolling down her cheeks, she insisted there would be no wars in their lifetimes. The worst war had been fought and peace would reign in the United States for ever. He smiled at her optimistic, though naïve ways and pulled her closer.

“Still,” he said, “marry me; make me the happiest man in the world.”

She smiled again and nodded, unable to find her voice.

A few weeks later, in a simple white suit, she stood beside him in front of a minister and took her vows – to love and to cherish, through sickness and health, until death do they part. She took those vows very seriously, waiting for him on the shore when he left for Germany, to fight that war she swore would never come. She bore him his children and grew old with him, watching their family expand, added son-in-laws and grandchildren and then even grandson and daughter-in-laws. When finally they saw the beginning of their great grandchildren, he found his time slipping and soon said goodbye.

Grandma always pauses to wipe her eyes and continues to remind us that her vows and should ours extend beyond this world. Her devotion to him will never end. As so shall my mother’s, mine and my daughter’s.