Take Him “As Is”
Parson: “Do you take this man for better or worse?”
Mandy: “He can’t be no worse, and they is no hopes of his gettin’ any better, so I takes him ‘as is.'”
-Paul E. Holdcraft
Tender, Loving Care
According to a British doctor, unloved babies do not grow normally. At an international conference of family doctors held in Toronto, Dr. G.C. Jenkins said nurses caring for unloved babies are taught to look at them and talk to them until the babies fix their eyes on the nurses’ faces. When the babies become aware of the nurses’ faces, they will start to gain weight and grow.
On reason unloved babies do not grow normally could be the effect their unhappiness has on the digestive system. Dr. Jenkins said that a happy baby’s stomach is producing the hydrochloric acid necessary for digestion, whereas the acid production is shut off if somebody upsets the baby.
-Prairie Overcomer
Waiting 42 Years
For forty-two years every week, David Thomas slipped a love letter under the door of his neighbor, Rachel Jones. Each letter attempted to mend the lover’s quarrel that parted them when both were 32. Rachel Jones burned each letter and refused even to speak to her suitor.
When David finally summoned courage to knock on her door and proposed, she accepted. Both were 74 years old when marriage finally came.
“I’ll Stay with You”
William and Mary Tanner were crossing a railroad track some years ago when Mary’s foot slipped and became wedged between the rail and a wooden crosswalk. Frantically she tried to get loose as a train approached around the curve. Her husband attempted to free her. As the express came closer with its brakes screeching, Mary realized it couldn’t stop in time. “Leave me, Bill! Leave me!” she cried. Seeing his efforts were useless, he arose quickly and help her in his arms to protect her as much as possible. While bystanders shuddered in horror, the train thundered over them. It was reported that just before the engine hit them, they heard the brace man cry, ” I’ll stay with you, Mary!”
– Our Daily Bread
The Word “Sweetheart”
Margaret was the widow of the powerful Scot Baliol of Norway. She carried her husband’s embalmed heart in an ivory box for twenty-one years, calling it her “sweet heart and silent companion.”
When dying, she asked “that the heart be laid upon her breast, so that two hearts united may spend all eternity together.” This inspired the first usage of the term “sweetheart.”
Epigram
All men are born free, but some get married.
-E.C. McKenzie
The most impressive example of tolerance is a golden wedding anniversary.
-Grit
(Reading the Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times, by Paul Lee Tan, 1990)
