We m et on Easter Sunday and were married three months later on the 4th of July. After 33 years of being on my own, divorce and single motherhood behind me, I had found my soul mate.
When my husband, Ralph, passed on three years later, that short, sweet chapter of my life seemed to come to an abrupt end. One of the definitions for wed in Webster's Dictionary is "to unite as if by the bond of marriage." And for bliss, Webster says, "complete happiness," and for marriage, "an intimate or close union." What I had with Ralph was true wedded bliss, but not only because we were united by the bond of marriage. We also had complete happiness, because our union was divinely inspired and carried out in a way that no amount of human planning could have accomplished.
Starting over without him didn't come easily. The tears came. And sometimes I would cry out, "Why?" I had to find my peace, and this meant I needed to expand my understanding that in the absolute sense, in spiritual reality, there is no such thing as loss. As a lifelong student of Christian Science, I knew one thing in the midst of my grief—that there is a continuity of Life that death does not touch. And this continuity means that God's love for us never changes. No matter what human circumstances we happen to find ourselves in, whether we're single, married, divorced, or widowed, the human picture—good or bad—doesn't begin to tell us who we really are. Our true status is complete, whole, joyous. Each one of us is an entirely spiritual idea—blissfully wedded to God.
