“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Eph 5:25
Years ago, I wrote a column in William Loeb’s Manchester Union Leader. Although I would get some nice reader feedback now and then, I never really knew whether my column made any difference or whether anyone cared. But, as it often happens in life, now and then someone comes along who touches you in a very special way and makes it all worthwhile. John McVitty was a spirit-filled, elderly gentleman who was madly in love with Bessie--his wife of sixty years. He, more than any man I ever met, loved and adored his wife--whom he called affectionately, “Mommy.”
He wrote me one day to say that he was an avid reader and that it took him a year to work up the courage to write and ask me this favor: “Would you…could you,” he wrote, “write a love poem for my dear wife Bessie? I love her so much but I cannot find those words. She is not in the best of health and we are about to celebrate our 60th anniversary this year. Could you find it in your heart to write her a poem for me?” I was so touched by the eloquence of this man that I teared up a little when I read his note.
We wrote back and forth a few more times. I asked him to give me some more personal details about his wife and himself. Of course I would try, but whatever I wrote could never do justice to the depths of this man’s heartfelt passion for his wife. I was privileged to meet John McVitty, and will never forget him. He told me afterwards that the minister read the poem and, as John put it, “There was not a dry eye in the house. Bessie cried, my poor darling.” Sometimes the Spirit puts us in touch with people far more eloquent and sincere that ourselves. Perhaps it is to teach us how things ought to be, and what we should strive to be.
This was John McVitty’s love story. Dedicated to a man more eloquent than he knew:
“His newest book, The Wind and the Spirit (Stories of Faith and Inspiration)” was released in 2011 with all the author’s royalties go to support the Carmelite sisters.”
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Eph 5:25
Years ago, I wrote a column in William Loeb’s Manchester Union Leader. Although I would get some nice reader feedback now and then, I never really knew whether my column made any difference or whether anyone cared. But, as it often happens in life, now and then someone comes along who touches you in a very special way and makes it all worthwhile. John McVitty was a spirit-filled, elderly gentleman who was madly in love with Bessie--his wife of sixty years. He, more than any man I ever met, loved and adored his wife--whom he called affectionately, “Mommy.” 
