Word of the Day: Propinquity

Propinquity

Noun: Nearness in place or time; nearness in relationship; similarity in nature.

I want to introduce you to a very special couple. You don’t meet people like this every day, and I’m proud to call them my friends.

You see, my friends, Steve and Kathryn, have been married for 65 years! Most of us cannot even fathom spending that much time together with another person.  I’ve been married for 21 years and we’re not even halfway there!

I love to watch Steve and Kathryn together.  While they live in the Green Tree Nursing Home, they still share the same room.  They both use walkers and regularly stroll up and down the halls together.  If you stand at the far end of the hallway and see them coming toward you, you’d think they were a brother/sister pair instead of husband/wife.  They look like siblings!  Roughly the same height. Same hunched shoulders. Same slight limp of the left leg. Same generous smile. Same timbre of voice.  Yes, they could be twins.

Mostly, I love to sit and talk with them; hear them tell the story of their 65 years together.  You can’t help but smile as they finish each other’s sentences, or nod in knowing agreement at some statement of fact the other has recollected.  It’s an amazing story to hear and I hope you get to know a couple like Steve and Kathryn.  65 years of sharing the same bed, living in the same house, eating the same food, watching the same TV shows, raising children, practicing the same faith, celebrating victories and comforting each other through the losses.  It’s the story of life lived together.

65 years of propinquity has taken two very different people and knitted them together in a physical and emotional bond that has, quite literally, caused the two to become one!

Here’s to Steve and Kathryn, an inspiration to us all!

P.S.  Thanks for the word suggestion, Steve! This one’s for you!