Spring of 1971:

Hello Friends, Here is a real "Love Story" Connection:

Trudy and Robert went on a picnic to the Gravel Pits south of Alexandria. We packed some soft drinks, some sandwiches, and a book that inspired a film that had been recently released, called..."Love Story" by Erich Segal.

We enjoyed exploring the area, and finding just the right place to spread our picnic lunch. After our picnic lunch, Robert did some dare-devil rock climbing and some stunts clearly designed to impress his girl! Now I don't remember much about trendy rock-climbing fashions from 1971, but I gotta tell ya...calf-length black socks! Whew, no wonder Trudy was impressed!
As mentioned in an earlier blog, I had a strong feeling in our fateful meeting months earlier, that a somehow we were at the beginning of a love story just for us. Well, Trudy felt that too, for here we were on a picnic and she has this book, a book with the compelling title: "Love Story." After my dazzling feats of athleticism and daring-do, we returned to the cozy spot of our picnic spread. Trudy extracted the book from her paper grocery bag (I know, shamelessly extravagant!) and began to read the story aloud. Once again I was smitten by the sheer transparency of soul and spirit of this incredible person. She read for an hour or more and I was mesmerized...oh, not so much by the excellent prose, but by her voice, her tears, her purity, and the reality that was becoming more certain every minute...whatever Trudy did, she immersed herself with a totality I had never witnessed before. While she read aloud the tragic love story of Oliver Barrett IV, and Jennifer Cavilleri, there was simultaneously welling up within my being the unmistakable surge of heart and will that we, Trudy and I, were embarking on...no novel, mind you...but a true life love story that would far eclipse anything we could ever have imagined.

A date to the Gravel Pits??? Whodathunkit? Yet, it was profoundly momentous in our emerging courtship...affecting us and instilling in us a determined, sustaining inner certainty, that we were to be a "Love Story."

Trudy told me shortly after our daughter, Wendy began "Trudy's Blog," that she wanted the entries to to as clearly as possible, tell even the harsh realities. She reasoned that if prayers were important to her (us) then we should reveal the deepest concerns, the harshest medical issues, even the otherwise sensitive matters not normally for public knowledge. In that spirit, I must tell you that while I enjoy so much telling our story, many times there are difficult memories, too. Just today, I remembered that on the last Friday of April 2007, Trudy came home from M. D. Anderson Cancer Center after perilous weeks of inhumanly harsh treatments for Leukemia. On the last Friday of April 2010, Trudy's body was transported back to our earthly home, again from M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, after she was unable to overcome the even more harsh treatments of the attempted Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant. Please don't mistake my grieving for weakness of faith...I know...I know that she is truly home. But, I do miss my girlfriend, my best friend, my lover, my true heart and my constant companion over the years.

Next time I should like to share with you a time where the "eyes" have it! An amazing paradox about Trudy's sharp eyesight.

Blessings,
Robert

I, haltingly, have decided to expose the somewhat eerie but not exactly parallel "rest of the story." In the book, Oliver has a lot of growing up to do and Jenny is the catalyst that spurs him forward. After they had been together for some time, Jenny began feeling ill all the time and while it was not specifically revealed in the book, it was apparent that she had Leukemia. She underwent costly and severe treatments that ultimately failed. The novel is a stylish but tragic story. While there is a smidgen of irony here, Trudy, fashioned by God as a Proverbs 31, woman; proves that God's reality far exceeds any story a person can imagine. No words exist that allow me to express the gratitude I feel toward God, that in His providence, He designed Trudy and me...one for the other...even in our earliest moments. Praise be to God.