We want to be just like Mom and Dad

 Mom and Dad were featured in the Leisure World News fourteen years ago in June 2007.

IT’S 60 WONDERFUL YEARS FOR FRANKLIN AND JEANNE GRAYBILL

The first day I met Mom and Dad was 10 years ago when we flew to Mesa for our wedding. Dad was to preform the ceremony and Mom had offered to sing at our wedding.  He was 90 and she was 89-years-old.  Dad was on oxygen and needed his wheelchair if he walked more than a few feet.

They had recently celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary.  Every evening in the dining room of their assisted living home, Dad would read poetry to Mom.   (We now have the book that he read from.  It is one of our treasures.)

On the day that I met them, Dad mentioned something about Mom.  As he said her name, “Jeanne," Dad looked at her and reached his hand to her.  There was intense love in his eyes.  Mom slid her hand into his, and I saw the same deep love in her eyes.  I had witnessed a beautiful moment of shared love.  

I was enchanted. I had never seen anything like this before in my life.  And I thought that long lasting true love is really possible.  This is what I had always dreamed of, and I said to myself, “I want to be just like Mom and Dad and years from now I want to have this with my Danny.”  

Eight years later we moved to our home in Leisure World, just like Mom and Dad who had lived in LW for 20 years.  Then, this summer, just like Mom and Dad, we were featured in the Leisure World News!

Dan and Vicky Graybill: A Trailblazing Hiking Duo

We framed the LW News articles of Franklin and Jeanne Graybill and Dan and Vicky Graybill, and hung them facing each other in our hallway where we enjoy them several times each day.

Every time I see Mom and Dad in this picture, I think of that moment of love that I saw pass between them on the eve of our wedding ten years ago.  And I remember how when I saw their love for each other that I wanted this too.

Yes, long lasting true love is really possible.  I have this with my Danny. 

And he will read me poetry from Dad’s book in the evenings as we grow old together.