Where's the Silver Lining?

Another memory - asprin

{user:redwritinghoo) asked me for an instance when I showed love other than in words. I know lots of ways that Robert has shown me. I know have shown him I love him, too, but my mind went blank before I remembered the asprin.

Robert and I have known each other forty-five years. We met November 7, 1961, when he came to what was called Bethany Nazarene College (now Southern Nazarene University) to visit his sister. We were married a short time later - February 18, 1962.

He and I both showed our love for each other in many ways, not always in words, but also in actions. I've written about one instance where he took the time to remember me in the story "Romance Midst Tragedy" . I haven't put into my writings any of the times I've displayed my love, but what else would take a pregnant woman out into the cold night to find asprin for a sick husband?

The baby was due within two or three weeks. I was miserable because I couldn't sleep much at night, and with three active children, sleep wasn't possible during the day. Finally, that night I fell into a deep sleep, but Robert didn't. He was so sick that the doctor had even stopped by the house to check on him (doctors didn't make house calls even then).

I don't know how long I slept, maybe two hours, when I heard him calling me. I fought my way through the grogginess and stumbled into the livingroom where he sat on the sofa, head in hands, rocking back and forth as he moaned.

"Honey, what's wrong?" I asked as I lowered myself beside him.

"My head is killing me, and we don't have any more asprin."

"Let me see what I can find," I told him as I levered my bulging body upward.

I searched that house from top to bottom. I couldn't even find a baby asprin. Anyone who has children knows that baby or children asprin or the equivilent is always around. But not that night in that house, oh, no.

In those days, there were no stores opened all night, not even a convience store, but I struggled into some clothes and into my coat. I drove through the streets of Woodward, Oklahoma, looking for any place that might be open. All was dark. Finally I remembered the truck stop just outside the south edge of town.

Surely, I thought, truckers need asprin. I parked in front of the combination restaurant/station and trudged inside through the bitterly cold wind. There in a nice display on the counter sat asprin.

Only love would have gotten me out of that bed and into the December weather that night.