This would have been Mom and Dad's fifty-ninth wedding anniversary. On a Sunday evening after worship services, my folks were united in holy matrimony by Grandpa Hawley at the rural Corinth Church Of Christ building in Nashville, Arkansas. The date was December 25, 1949. This week, as Scott was going through a box of our parents' belongings, he came across a letter written by twenty year old Roger Hawley to twenty-four year old Sarah Nelda Chesshir. These words, penned in fading blue ink, came from Dad the same night he proposed to Mom. The Jule and Judy mentioned were the Millers, great friends of Mom and Dad over the years. Dad had heard that a woman was more likely to accept a marriage proposal if she had just been in a blissful domestic setting so he arranged for these newlyweds to invite them to supper, meaning to pop the question on the way home. I thought it would be my tribute to Dad to reproduce his love letter to the future Mrs. Roger W. Hawley on the day of their anniversary.
April 23, 1949
To the dearest girl in the world:
To some that might sound insincere, but knowing my love for you, you will understand that that is just how I feel.
I think that the date in the corner ought to be monumental to us for the rest of our lives. I've been so happy about us, but I think I've never been so happy about us as tonight. When I heard you say that you would marry me, I felt a new surge of security within me.
I think that tonight, visiting Jule and Judy, we've had a wonderful introduction to a brand new chapter in our love- a glorious chapter. Perhaps this will be the last section in Volume I, the book that will be finished when we are united in marriage. Then we will open and begin writing in a volume bound in the pure gold of God's love and sanction which will even surpass the first.
I wish I could hear again Jule's words to Judy in that beautiful letter. Nelda dear, I want our marriage to be like those pure ideals which have guided them. They are proof to us that, in spite of many who jeer, a beautiful and radiant marriage can be accomplished. If we may be allowed to take a Biblical theme, I think that the Corinthian love chapter is a wonderful guide. I'm going to read it before I go to bed. In many words, we could not surpass those definitions of real love. When we've been married 25 or 50 years, we will still be able to turn there and appreciate more and more those meanings. Nelda, I wish I could express to you tonight my love- but I feel so incapable. I feel so safe and secure- and so much in love. I'll be dreaming of you tonight, my love.
Goodnight, Sweetheart,
Roger
I almost feel that a quote today is superfluous but I really like this marriage proposal:
Applicable quote of the day:
"“Allow me, then, Mademoiselle, to place today on the altar of your charms, the offering of my heart, which aspires to and strives after no other glory than for the rest of its life to be, Mademoiselle your very humble, very obedient and very faithful servant and husband.”
Moliere
God bless,
Steve, son of Roger W. and Sarah Nelda Chesshir Hawley
Luke 18:1
http://www.hawleybooks.com/
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com
1 comment:
What a loving tribute to your mother. That was true, sincere love in that letter that your father wrote.
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