Kissing in the Radishes – by Stacey Farrant
It’s February, and just about everywhere we go we are reminded that Love is in the air. There are red and pink hearts, pretty boxes of chocolates and dozens upon dozens of flowers available at flower shops, grocery stores, and even the corner store. This year, as the most romantic day on the calendar approaches, I am not going to be thinking about hearts and roses, I am going to be dreaming of radishes.
This past spring, I had to say my goodbyes to a very beautiful lady who was a friend of the family. It was at her funeral that I truly learned just what it meant to wholeheartedly love somebody. As I heard her loving husband give his eulogy I was overwhelmed with the intensity of his adoration and commitment to his wife. His words were so touching; I am sure there couldn’t possibly have been a dry eye in the room. I remember hearing him say that if he had more time with his wife that it wouldn’t have made it any easier to lose her because he would have only loved her more.
As he continued to talk about all the wonderful times they shared as man and wife for over thirty years, he reminisced about how even a simple shopping trip was a romantic adventure for the lovebirds. It was incredible to see this man’s face light up as if, for a moment, he was right back in time. He told the congregation of stealing a kiss with his wife in the produce section at the grocery store. He said that she would look across the aisle at him and give him that beautiful infectious smile of hers and say: “Have you been kissed in the radishes today?” At that moment, there wasn’t a story line in a movie that could have compared or touched me more. This wasn’t Brad Pitt reciting to his leading lady in a major motion picture. This was true love. This was a man that had loved his wife for better or worse, richer or poorer, sickness and in health, ’til death did them part. This love was patient and kind. It was love that bared all things, believed all things, hoped all things and endured all things. This love never failed.
After leaving the church that afternoon, my whole perception of what kind of love and relationship I wanted and deserved for myself changed. I knew that I could never settle for anything less than someone that I had to kiss even in the radishes. I was never one for romantic movies or the silly little chick flicks because I never thought that the story lines were very real. I now know that true love, is very real.