Page 3592 - 1970S

1used to think that romance was
something that thrilled and pro–
pelled up to cloud nine only
youths from their late teens to their
late twenties. Surely no person past
fifty could ever experience the won–
derful, anticipatory, exotic happi–
ness of real LOVE!
1 have leamed better.
Let me here quote a portion from
the beginning of what T wrote in
both our ministerial Bul/etin, read
by our ministers all over the earth,
and in The Worldwide News, read by
about 98 percent of the members of
the Worldwide Church of God be–
sides many other nonmember sub–
scribers:
" Brethren, my heart is filled to
overflowing with gratitude and !ove
to you for the overwhelrning re–
sponse of congratulations for my
marriage of three weeks ago today,
here in our new 'away-from-bome
home' in Tucson, Arizona.
"The cards and letters consist of
not only congratula tions, but show
rejoicing in your own hearts and
your deep !ove for me, and now
express that same respect and love
for my lovely new bride, Ramona.
"1 spent one whole day until 1 was
tired, mentaUy and physicaUy, and
'eye tired' wading through whole
boxes of hundreds upon hundreds
of congratulatory cards and letters.
It was one of the greatest demon–
strations of your !ove, concem, loy–
alty and affection for your Pastor
General and God's apostle tha t 1
have ever experienced.
"And 1 shall never be able to
thank God enough for selecting her
and sending her to me and causing
the very real and deep !ove that has
grown in each of us for the other.
God knew the he1p 1 needed by my
side to accomplish His Work for the
remainder of my li fe- for both of
our lives-and He certainly chose
and sent to me the lovelies t and the
most lovable of the lovely.
" In a sense this has been our hon–
eymoon in our own new borne to–
gether, yet it has been one of the
BUSIEST and HARDEST-WORKING
three weeks of my life. The one
room that is already completely fur–
nished in out; new home is my
study-my office. I have been hard
a t work at the typewriter and on the
telephone with many of our top
The PLAIN TRUTH July 1977
Personal from ...
Comments lnspired byMy
Own Recent Marriage–
After Ten Years a Widower
people at the offi ces in Pasadena
and in other telephone conversa–
tions from other points in the world.
By no means have 1 been out of
contact- but in constan! dai ly con–
tact-with the Work."
Our great Creator IS LOVE. He is
the giver of true LOVE. And can we
receive a greater gift- in this life, I
mean? Of course, the gift of eterna !
life fiUed with divine love and joy
and peace and happiness forever
and ever is the greatest.
1 was married when 1 was in the
youthful age of romance- 25. 1 had
left offchurch attendance at 18. I was
not religious, nor, for tha t matter,
irreligious. 1 was full of ambition for
success with the full SELF-confident
bloom of youth. 1 bad dated many
girls, most of them from what l con–
sidered fine fami lies, old families–
the best. 1 liked them all, but was in
love with none- until that certain one
carne along. Splendid, charming, cul–
tured as they all were, she was differ–
ent- superior- and this time it was
LOVE- not at first sight, but it blos–
somed rapidly after our fi rst meeting,
which wasJanuary 1, 1917.
Of course, I was on that wonder–
ful cloud nine. We were married on
July 31 of that year. That happy
marriage !asted fifty years, lacking
3~ months to the day.
Sure, the first flushes of romance
changed gradually into a less ex–
citing but deeper and deeper love
and trust and loyalty. We fought
life's battles together, and enjoyed
its successes together. God used her
in my conversion a t age 35 - in
spurring me to an. intensive, in–
depth, night-and-day study of the
Bible that led to opening its mean–
ing forme, giving me UNDERSTAND–
lNG, and the GrFT, through the
presence of God's Holy Spirit, of
ETERNAL LIFE to come at the resur–
rection. She was cofounder with me
of tbe "Philadelphia era" (Rev. 3:7-
13) of tbe Church of God, founded
in A.D . 3 1 by Jesus Christ. She was
cofounder of The Plain Truth. She
worked with me in starting the radío
broadcast and throughout its rapid
worldwíde growth. She was cofou n ~
der of Ambassador College. We did
everything together. We were a
TEAM. Our marríage !asted until
death parted us, May 15, 1967.
Then carne ten LONELY YEARS,
but a worldwide Work had been
built, and I had to keep driving on–
alone and lonely.
1 learned God meant what He
said when He said : " lt ís not good
that the man should be alone."
"Dad," said my son Gamer Ted
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