Role Models of True Love

Role Models Of True Love by Stephy

“The food, the lights, the music”, said Jenny as she was walking around the party with her sister, greeting all of her family and old classmates. “It’s all very nice, don’t you think?”

“Yes, mom and dad really put a lot of work into it,” her sister Gigi said, barely acknowledging her sister, as she looked at all the food on the table. “You know, if you want to eat right now, you can,” Jenny looked at her sister as she spoke, “No one will judge you for it.”

Gigi looked at her sister as if she knew nothing at all and said, “If I’m the first one to eat, everyone will watch me!” Jenny looked at Gigi with the same face and said, “Fine then. If you want to torture yourself looking at the food, be my guest. I’ll go talk to someone else.” She walked away to the middle of the room and spotted a few friends from her old school. It had been a few years since she finished high school, but it’s been a distant memory for her since she started working in her sister Yvette’s bakery to help out her family. She spent most of the night talking to her old friends, until she spotted a man across the room. Her friends watched her as she looked at him for a few moments. This was quite odd for Jenny, you see, because she never looked at men or even talked of men. Even as a kid, she never thought about marrying someone in the future or even dating, because her mind was always on her family. The man across the room caught her eye and she looked away. “Jenny, do you know that man?” said her friend Eileen, who was playing with her hair as she spoke. “I don’t know”, said Jenny as she looked at him again, trying to identify him, “He looks familiar. I’m going to go talk to him.” “Alright, have fun”, said her friend Rosemary, winking at her, as if implying something flirtatious was about to happen, even though Jenny had never thought about that sort of thing in her life.

She was crossing the room when the man started to move to meet her halfway. “Jenny, right?”, he said and she wondered how he knew her name. “Yes”, she said cautiously, examining him as she spoke, “I’m sorry, have we met?” He looked at her while smiling, and replied, “I’m Ephraim. We’ve spoken before at your family’s last few parties.” She thought back to those nights, and suddenly it all came back. They had talked before. They had even danced together before, but she never thought twice about dancing with a man. She couldn’t usually remember most of the men she danced with, but she remembered him now.  Her face lit up, happy to see him, and he was happy to see her too. They spent the rest of the night talking and laughing together, until the sun came up.

As the days went by, Jenny often thought of Ephraim, and that wonderful night she spent with him. It had been a week since that night occurred, and she hadn’t heard from him since. She was working at Yvette’s bakery, and talking to her other three sisters who helped out there, when someone came in. Jenny looked up and saw Ephraim’s happy face, and she smiled and went to greet him.

“Hello, what can I do for you today, Ephraim?” He lived on the other side of their small island, so he had come quite a long way just to be there to order something. “I came here to ask you if you would like to have lunch with me today”, he said. She stood at the counter, staring at him as if he had just said something unusual. She had, of course, been asked out to eat before by many guys. She was quite pretty and attracted many men, but she had always denied them without another thought. So why did she not want to deny this one? Something told her she couldn’t deny this man, and she gladly accepted the invitation. So that day, Gigi allowed Jenny to leave work early to go out to eat with Ephraim. They spent the day together until about 7, when she had to go home or her family would worry. When she got home that night, she was so happy that she accepted that invitation. The months went by and Jenny and Ephraim spent most of them together, until the day he asked her parents if he could court her. Around this point of time, dating was courting, which means to be involved romantically with the intention of marrying. Ephraim was a good man with a bright future, so it wasn’t a surprise that her parents said yes. The problem was that he lived pretty far and her parents said he could only see her every Sunday. So every Sunday he came to her house, and sat with her in the living room, while her parents monitored their every word. This was annoying, but Jenny and Ephraim didn’t mind it. They were just grateful to be together, even if it was for a few hours every week. They, of course, couldn’t mention things like we do today to our significant others such as, “I love you” or even “I like you”, but those things were already implied. This meeting every Sunday went on for a year, and it was getting crucially hard on them as they wanted more freedom to be together.

The day finally came when Ephraim went to Jenny’s father and asked him for her hand in marriage, as was the custom of this time. Society would not allow a man to marry a woman without asking her father for his approval. Jenny’s father was a very wise man. He knew that Ephraim had followed the rules and only seen Jenny every Sunday from noon to evening, and knew he had no bad intentions with his daughter. He admired Ephraim’s plans for the future, and never heard a complaint from his mouth about the rules, so he gave him permission to marry Jenny.

Weeks went by, and early one fine Sunday, a wedding occurred. Jenny and Ephraim were now married and free to do as they pleased. Ephraim immediately started preparing for the future and bought a plot of land to build him and his new wife a house. He worked every day for the next few months with his friends, building his house with his own two hands. He knew Jenny loved to cook, so he prepared the best kitchen accommodations for her. He also knew she liked to have a neat place to keep all her toiletries and personal hygiene products, so he constructed the perfect bathroom as well. Meanwhile, Jenny was working every day at the bakery to make money to accomplish her dream of owning a flower shop someday. Ephraim would have helped her financially, but building the house and managing to study for his master’s degree at the local college was pretty difficult. About a year after buying that plot of land, he had finished his house and he and his wife could finally move in. She had bought the flower shop and started working there already. It was pretty successful, actually and brought in a lot of money. Ephraim was halfway done with getting his master’s degree and was working as a biologist in the lab, part time of course.

As the years passed, they had a son and a daughter. Ephraim received his master’s degree and a PHD. He worked as a biologist for a few years, but then became active in politics. He made more than enough money to support his family, through hard work. Jenny had made tons of money beside him and finally sold her flower shop when the age came for her retirement. Today, Jenny and Ephraim live happily together in that same house, and will be celebrating fifty years of marriage soon. Their son and daughter moved out and started their lives, had kids, and so forth but they still visit from time to time. How do I know this information? Who am I, you might ask. Well, I’m their granddaughter. I live with these two people you just read about, and they are an inspiration to me. You should see the way they look at eachother every day. I know I do, and if you spent as much time with them as I do, you would know they still love each other and will most likely love each other until death do them part.