John and Annie Glenn had a Magical Love Affair

These are sentiments I picked up on a friend’s Facebook and
she got it somewhere on the Internet. They are marvelous words to live by.

“There comes a time in life when you walk away from all the
drama and people who create it. Surround yourself with people who make you
laugh, forget the bad and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you
right. Pray for those who don’t. Life is too short to be anything but happy.
Falling down is part of life and getting back up is living.”

We all have to get up sometime in life and we need no
escalator or elevator to get us up there where we belong. When I was a kid, all
department store elevators had what was called elevator operators. They were
usually women, once in a while a man was there and she had this big wheel and she
raised the elevator and it moved from floor to floor. When she reached for
instance, the second floor, she would say “Floor number two, men’s and ladies’
shoes, children’s clothing, and there is a cafeteria where you could buy an
inexpensive lunch or snack.” Then she
turned the wheel handle and you would be on floor three. She would relate all
the departments on floor three and if you wanted that floor to shop, you got
off and the circle continued all the way up to the top floor. Usually on the
top floor there was a lovely restaurant with cloth tablecloths and napkins and
there would usually be male waiters to serve you in an elegant style of that
period in time. Probably the most expensive meal was all of five dollars and it
included a cup of soup, the main choice of meat, fish or chicken, veggies and a
dessert. They served tiny rolls along with the meal and coffee was usually the
drink of the day. Some of the stores had models walking about as you ate
displaying a nice dress from the dress department. They smiled sweetly and
sometimes they had a piano player play some catchy tunes. It was a kind of
elegance to eat there and if you had five dollars, you really had a great time.
They took no reservations, you stood in a line and when a table was open, you
were called from a list they had at the entrance. Sometimes, they had male waiters
and after a time of going there, they would call you by name.

You met your friends and family there and they were not open
on Sundays, as all of the department stores as they were called then were
closed on Sundays.

You would get a lift from eating there and if you had a bad
day, this helped to let you get ‘back up’ and you would feel better.

If you did not have the five dollars plus tip, no sales tax
on food then, you could go up the street to a cafeteria huge in size called
Harvest and get delicious full meals for about three dollars including the tip
and no tax. Every night was a special dish added to the menus and they gave
huge portions. In those days, no matter how poor you were, nobody ever took
home left over portions. The first time I saw a take home bag was when my well
to do aunt came from Florida and I took her to dinner at a Chinese restaurant
and when we were all through, she asked the waiter for a container and she took
home all of the uneaten white rice which they had served to all of us. I could
not believe a woman of her means would do that, but then I saw others doing the
same thing. This was about in 1965.

She was the kind of person who you liked to be in her
company, because she had something nice to say about everyone and she sincerely
meant it. She was my step aunt and I really liked her so much. When you were in
her company, she was the type of person who lifted you up and you need not walk
away from any drama. She was the kind you wanted to surround yourself with and
she made you focus on good things. She talked a lot, but her feeling nice about
everyone she knew including you, made it worthwhile to be in her presence.

She was always happy and she had married when she was in her
real late thirties, which then was quite old and she inherited two children
from my uncle who was a widower and she was kind and found happiness in simple
events and things. To her life was too short to be anything but happy and she
was indeed joyful, because she found a fine fellow and she was finally married
and delighted to be no longer single. She had traveled the world and it was
unusual then to know someone who had been to Europe many times. I found her to
make us smile when we were in her company.

So if we meet someone who makes us smile, and who treats us
like we are a treasure, you need to walk towards them and appreciate being with
them even if it is now and then. With her it was like once a year because she
lived in Florida and she came up to see relatives every twelve months. I looked
forward to seeing her and her smile was captivating and sincere.

There is a saying that relates “A wonderful thought is that
some of the best days of our lives haven’t happened yet.” It is nice to
contemplate that they will come to us when we least expect it and the surprise
when they come will be so exciting and we will remember it for the rest of our
life. I think sometimes as I approach my seventy-ninth birthday in June, maybe
I will become famous from my stories and articles and I can see the headline
now in advance. It will say “Fame comes late to senior one year away from age
eighty-two. I will get my hair done, my fingernails done, my toe nails done and I
will lose ten pounds so I can get into a nice dress I have that is too tight
now.

I will wish that Mom and Dad and my brother could see me written
up and how proud they would be. Of course, my children and grandchildren will
tell all they know that this is their Mom and Grandmother and how proud they
are of me. My husband will stand by my side at the photo shoot and smile even
though he does not want to be there for a photo. We will hold hands and say we
are married now for the long time of fifty-six years and how we met on a blind
date etc.

Then I will buy up all the write-ups at the supermarket that
have my pictures on the cover of the magazine celebrating that an old lady made
it big time at eighty.

Dreams are nice, reality is better and so this wonderful
thought is part of the best days that have not happened yet.

We can all think about when this best day’s event will
happen to us and the anticipation is almost as great as the event itself.

So walk away from any drama in your now life and people who
are in it, laugh, smile, dream and focus on the good time or times coming to
you soon. Life is too short to be anything but happy and if you fall down, get
back up and be on that elevator of life and go from floor to floor of living
and go to the top where all the goodies are awaiting you and yours.\

John and Annie met and married and at that time she had a stuttering problem. This did not deter him and many years later, she went to a doctor and he cured her problem. People thought her shy, it was she did not like to talk and start to stutter. After it was cured, she went on the stage and talked about it and she encouraged others who had the problem, to go and get it fixed like she did. So John was the first man to orbit the earth, Annie was in her own way, an astronaut's wife who had the courage to encourage others as she did.

Chris Marlo said "come with me and be my love and all the pleasure we shall have."Joe Biden said "you had a magical love affair and you were partners too". They had their own elevator of life that lifted them both up to the skies that John saw on his orbit.