by Donna Poole
The newly married couple standing hand in hand under the canopy of stars looked more like sixteen than twenty. The ocean waves lapped at their bare toes, and it felt wonderful on this sultry August night in 1969.
There were only a handful of people on the National Seashore at Cape Hatteras this late, and the newlyweds didn’t mind the solitude. They’d come to the beach as soon as they’d checked into their hole in the wall motel in Nags Head a few miles up the road, the only road in and out of the Outer Banks in North Carolina.
Jenny leaned back against Mike and looked up at the Milky Way. “I’ve never seen so many stars in my life.” Her voice sounded like she was praying.
Mike nodded. “They say this is one of the best places for star gazing on the East Coast. Are you glad we drove straight through from Michigan? That was a long haul.”
“I am glad. I don’t want to waste a single minute here with you. I can’t believe we only have a week together before you leave for Viet Nam.”
“Then don’t think about it. Let’s make a lifetime of memories this week, and remember, I’m coming home. I promise. We’ll come back here every August and look at the Milky Way if you want to; we’ll even come when we’re seventy-seven and too old to walk the beach!”
She giggled. “Mike, seventy-seven isn’t that old! I think we could still walk on the beach.”
“Oh, I doubt it.” He teased her. “You’ll probably have a cane, and wrinkles on your wrinkles.”
She looked up at him. “And will you still love me?”
“Even more than I do tonight. And when we’re seventy-seven, we’ll bring our twenty-five grandchildren back here with us.”
“Twenty-five grandkids? How many kids do you plan on having?”
He kissed her before he answered. “As many as it takes to get twenty-five grandchildren. I don’t want our children to end up alone like we are, with no family.”
“Oh, honey, we aren’t alone anymore. We have each other.”
“Forever,” he promised.
“Do you think God is letting them look down for just a minute tonight to see how happy we are?” she asked.
“I hope so.”
And then they held each other and cried. Their parents had been good friends and had died a few months earlier in a car accident on the way home from a concert they’d attended together. Mike and Jenny were only children, and their parents had been too. With no siblings, aunts, or uncles, their wedding had been small, just a handful of friends, the pastor, and his wife.
Mike wiped the tears from Jenny’s cheeks with his thumbs and kissed her again. “Let’s not be sad on our honeymoon. Our parents would want us to be happy. There’s just the two of us now, but let’s have at least six kids. We’ll need that many to get our twenty-five grandkids. Can’t you just picture them all around our table at Christmas and Thanksgiving?”
Jenny laughed. “I’m not sure. Who’s going to do all that cooking and cleaning up?”
“I will! I’ll do everything, and you can just sit there and enjoy our big family! How does that sound? It will be a good life, Jenny, a real good life. You’ll see.”
A week can fly by on golden wings when you’re young, in love, and in a beautiful place like the Outer Banks. Jenny and Mike wished something would block the one road leading out so they wouldn’t have to leave, but nothing did. A few days after they got back home to Michigan, Mike shipped out for Viet Nam, just one more uniform among the 500,000 U.S. troops already there in 1969. Over 58,000 of them died. Mike was not one of them.
***
It was a sultry August night in 2025 when twenty-six people piled out of their vehicles late at night and headed for the ocean at the National Sea Shore. They’d all checked into a hole in the wall motel at Nags Head a short time before, and even though they were tired, the matriarch of the family had begged them to come to the beach before going to bed. Most of them were wading in the ocean; the water felt wonderful on their bare feet.
“Hey, Mikey,” someone called in the dark. “That was a long haul, driving non-stop from Michigan. Whose idea was that anyway?”
“That would be Grandma Jenny. Who else?”
They were down by the water, but voices carried. Jenny was sitting in a beach chair with her cane next to her, glad to be alone for a minute. Time to herself was a luxury with her big, loud, crazy family usually nearby. The one she loved most, though, was always missing.
In 1973 there were 2,500 soldiers missing in Viet Nam. Mike was one of them. By 2015 there were still 1,600 missing. Mike was one of them.
Tears traced their way down the wrinkles on wrinkles in Jenny’s face as she looked up at the Milky Way.
Well, Mike, I’m here, just like we promised each other we would be. We got twenty-five grandkids, but I had to adopt eight kids to get them, not six. When they told me you were MIA in Viet Nam I didn’t want to go on living without you. I kept begging God to give you back to me. But I finally realized you weren’t coming home. You were with Jesus and our parents. So, I decided to keep our dream alive. Our table is full every Thanksgiving and Christmas, just the way you wanted it to be, and all our grandkids know what a wonderful man you were. All of them are here with me now. I wish God would let you look down and see what amazing people they are.
“Hey, Grandma, do you want to come wade in the ocean?” Mikey asked. He bent down and wiped her tears away with his thumbs.
“I’m not sure I can walk that far through the sand.”
“Hey, who wants to help Grandma get to the water?” he called.
Suddenly Jenny felt her chair being picked up and carried by some of her strong, young grandsons. They sat her down right at the edge of the ocean, and she slipped off her shoes and let the waves lap up over her bare toes.
“You were right, Mike,” she whispered to the stars. “It was a good life. I can’t wait to be with you and tell you all about it.”
The end
***
These blogs are now available in book form on Amazon:
Backroad Ramblings Volume One: Stories of Faith, Love, and Laughter
Backroad Ramblings Volume Two: Stories of Faith, Love, and Laughter
Backroad Ramblings Volume Three: Stories of Faith, Love, and Laughter
Backroad Ramblings Volume Four: Stories of Faith, Love, and Laughter
