Home Is Where the Heart Is

Will you come and follow me,

If I but call your name?

Will you go where you don't know,

And never be the same?

Will you let my love be shown,

Will you let my name be known?

Will you let my life be grown

In you and you in me?

(Borrowed from the Tribute to Dr. Edward Lepley)

     One of my grandsons called me before he proposed to his wife and asked me a question.  He said, "I want to propose and I think she loves me but I'm going to be going into the military and I don't know if she knows what she's in for. How can I ask her to follow me all over the world and embrace the life of a military wife?"  I told him I'd get back to him with an answer.  The following is the story I wrote for the two of them.

Ted and Laura Gehrke - April 7, 1957

     The year was 1957 as our car rolled across the panhandle of Texas, just north of Amarillo.  My eyes began to cloud up with tears.  Ted and I had been on a three week honeymoon in Ohio.  It had been an exciting, glorious time for me and I hadn't once been homesick... until now.  As strange as it seems, I apparently didn't know what I missed but now it hit me, that I was leaving my home, my parents, my friends and all that was familiar to me, to follow this man, to God only knows where for the rest of my life.  (He was in the U.S. Air Force and his feet had wings!)  As I gazed out across the barren landscape of west Texas and saw the sun sitting like an explosion on the horizon, it fairly took my breath away!

     "It's beautiful." I whispered.

     "What's beautiful?" asked my new husband.

     I looked at him like he must be an alien and said, "...this country."  Then I hoped he wouldn't ask another question, because I was choked up.

     "I guess you'd have to live here." he said sarcastically.

     That made me angry.  "Are you telling me you can't see the beauty in that?" I asked pointing out the window.

     He pulled the car off the road and stopped, then he turned and looked out at the golden, sun bathed plane, the cactus, mesquite trees, tumble weeds and brush.  "It does have a certain beauty." he admitted,..."but it would be nice to see a tree now and then, but then I guess a tree would be out of place out there, wouldn't it?"

     "Yes, It's perfect just the way it is." I replied, wiping tears.

     "Why are you crying?" he asked suddenly.

     I hoped he hadn't noticed and I didn't feel like explaining because I wasn't sure myself.  I shrugged, hoping he'd drop it, but he didn't.

     "Have I done something to upset you?" he pressed me.

     "No."

     "Then what's wrong?"

     "Nothing!"

     "People don't cry for no reason. Are you mad at me because I said the countryside wasn't beautiful?"

     "You just said it is beautiful." I replied.

     "This is a ridiculous conversation." he said.

     "Ok, so let's quit talking."

     "Fine!" he said and started the car,

     "Fine!" I repeated as he pulled back on to the highway.

     We drove in silence for several miles.  The sun was down and I had stopped crying and could now talk about it, so I tried to put my feelings into words.

     "I guess I'm a little homesick and I didn't realize it until I looked out across this land that looks like my home.  I'm not mad at you.  Sometimes beautiful things make me cry and I thought that scene, with the sun going down on the prairie, was beautiful.  It reminded me of home."

     Ted sighed and said, "I guess it's really true that "Home is where the heart is." he said.  He paused for a minute, then added, "You're not going to be here much longer.  You're an Air Force wife now and you're home will probably change every year or so.  Are you going to be able to transfer your heart to all those places?"

     I looked at him closely and saw concern clouding his face.  We had talked about this briefly before we were married... about the fact that he was making a career of the Air Force and that meant that we would have to move around a lot and maybe even go overseas.  He had wanted to make sure that I was in agreement with that kind of lifestyle.

     "Not everyone likes it." he'd said.  "Some wives are so attached to their homes that they're miserable moving all the time."

     I had assured him that I would love the travel and I welcomed the adventure of living in new, strange places.  My ambition as a young girl had been to become an airline stewardess just so I could travel.  But my reaction to coming home had spooked us both.

     I scooted across the seat and snuggled up under his arm.  "I guess you leave a little piece of your heart in every place, but you can be sure that my heart is now at home with you.  Wherever you are will be my home from now on."

     He pulled the car off the road and stopped again, but this time it was so we could share a tender, sweet kiss.  That's why our week's honeymoon had turned into three weeks... because of moments like these!

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