What Happened to This Kind of Love?

My 22 year old son sent me a link to this story this morning. In his message from the Middle East he asked why there couldn't be more stories in the news like this one. My son said he just wanted to hug this man.

Verizon Recovers Man's Missing Message of Wife's Voice

IRVINGTON, N.Y. - An 80-year-old man can hear his late wife's voice again, any time he wants. Verizon has recovered a lost message recorded by Charles Whiting's wife, Catherine, before her death in 2005.

When Verizon upgraded the man's telephone service, his wife's voice disappeared from his voicemail system. The message said "Catherine Whiting," and her husband said he listened to it every day for comfort.

Company spokesman John Bonomo said Tuesday that a contractor found the recording in an archive and restored it to the new voicemail system.

Charles Whiting says he's very happy.

I don't know if any of you have had the privilege of being around this kind of love. My family is blessed to have witnessed this. My Grandparents have been the greatest blessing in our lives. Two years ago we moved to the family farm so that we were able to take care of them and allow them to stay in their home together rather than spend their last years in a nursing home. They exemplify this kind of love. Grandma passed away this November, here at home, with love surrounding her. Till the last day they held hands and told each other how much they loved each other.

With so many broken homes in society today, I worry about the perceptions that our children will have when they become adults. We have become a disposable society where everything, including your loved ones, can be replaced. We seek immediate gratification and for this we are trading the kind of enduring love that only time, commitment and dedication can bring to a relationship.

My parent's were divorced after many tumultuous years of infidelity and other dramas. My own marriage ended in divorce. But, through it all, I always had these grandparents to look to and see what real love was supposed to be. I could see family the way it was meant to be...full of love and laughter, through good times and bad, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health.

When I read the threads on ATS I get the sense that people feel empty inside. We seem to be seeking fulfillment and meaning in our lives from something which we can be apart of. Whether that be a conspiracy that we have inside knowledge on or some pending event that only the few can see. For me it represents a search for something beyond ourselves to give fullness to what can be a mundane existence. Disaster threads such as the 2012 ones make you realize that people are looking for more in their lives or a change of some sort. I believe we are all, at some level, seeking unconditional love that our society has made a thing of the past. Love like this man in the story had for his wife. Love that accepts us for who we are and who we aren't.

As children we are taught to dream and prepare for an important future. Yet, as adults, we find that this destination, once reached, can often be a lonely desolate place. While we may have fulfillment of occupation, we rarely "have it all" anymore. Maybe it is because we have lost the roots of what family really is and can be. Maybe it is because we have forgotten that to have strength in the external world, you need to have a sanctuary of peace and love at home. I am just saying a prayer for everyone today that we can somehow reach back in time and remember those things that truly brought us security. It's not more laws and power of armies, it is the love within our own homes. It is love that is patient with one another and forgives our weaknesses. It is love that lasts. When we find meaning in our own homes, we will begin to find meaning in our world again. People like this man and my Grandfather remind me every day that there is more. We are missing something...and that something is the simple love that can only be found in lasting commitment to family. I pray for our children, many of whom will never know or see what real family can be.

From my son to you....here is the kind of story that keeps our troops believing that we do live in a world worth serving. May we remember that what we seek outside...can often be found inside our own homes if we are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to have enduring love of and for family be both the journey and the destination.

Peace.

I saw that link on yahoo this afternoon. It is touching, I am not fortunate to have found that kind of love. I never will. But it is heartwarming to know that there are people out there that have found that bond with someone.

I also thought that it was very nice for them to recover this little bit of this man's wife for him. Something he cherished and probably would miss.

Unconditional love is something that should be honored in our society, unfortunately I see all too often the aftermath of a failed relationship. What makes me angry is when I see signs up at the local womens league that say "Divorce and your financial future" I get angry at this because sometimes this is the reason for the divorce more so than the problems with the marriage.

Guys arn't always to blame for the ending of a marriage sometimes women are too.

My parents were married until my mother passed away. My father truly loved my mother. It was a hard path for my father to take to get back to himself after she died. Love like that comes along only once in a lifetime. If you miss it you will never get anything like it back again.

Awww, thankx for making me shed a few tears!
I hope to have that kind of love oneday but, something already tells me I never will!