Our Love Story Continues

• Posted on 9th August 2018
• in divorce & remarriage, Love Story
• by Ben

---

I wrote this portion of my love story with (my twice wife) the beauteous Elizabeth Hepburn in November of 2014 as the opening of the epilogue to volume three of my memoirs aptly entitled Waiting for Elizabeth.

For those of you who haven’t read the book, we had been married for twenty-nine years when we separated (1996) then we were divorced in 1999. She came back home in 2005 and we remarried in 2010. Quite a love story!

The idea to present it here was instigated by a recent interview we did with pod-cast host, Midori Verity. As soon as the interview is ready I’ll share it here. One of the questions she put to the two of us had to do with how things are different between us the second time around and my answer was essentially what I wrote in the final chapter of Waiting for Elizabeth.

Epilogue Excerpt

Once again I’m a happily married man. I like my second wife even more than I liked the first one and I suspect she’d say the same for her husbands. Sure, we have the same names and look a lot like those other two spouses but for as many things about us that are the same there are at least an equal number – probably more – that are not.

In enumerating the differences I wouldn’t be so bold as to list what Elizabeth has learned as a result of our dark period. I can only speak for myself. The nine years we lived apart and especially the six before our reconnection began to evolve were so desolate that with each passing day I became more and more aware of the value of what I had lost. The most important aspect of my new connection with this wondrous woman is appreciation.

Let me cite small, seemingly inconsequential examples: I have learned not only how important a well made bed is to my beloved but also how to do it. Furthermore, in the past making the bed was a chore. Now it is a joy. I know, it’s a very small thing but those very small things – and the love with which they are accomplished – add up. And the sum of those very small things is a very big number. Acting as her sous-chef every night; peeling and slicing cucumbers, chopping tomatoes and scooping the avocado for the salad. I didn’t always do that stuff before. Now I wouldn’t think of sitting and watching the news while she makes the salad. Acting as the full time dishwasher and pot scrubber… little things. I used to watch football games from my leather chair on autumn Sundays while she made her wonderful pea soup. Now I watch football from the table while I cube ham, peel and dice carrots.

Little things.

It’s important to tell you that none of these activities were dictated or even requested by Elizabeth, they are absolutely voluntary. I don’t mean to be tooting my own horn here. I’m just telling you how much more I appreciate Elizabeth and how I demonstrate that appreciation through action.

As in the old adage: It’s not what you say, it’s what you do.

Click here to get Waiting for Elizabeth (eBook or paperback).