<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Valentines-Day-Winans-150x200.jpg\")
With Valentine\u2019s Day upon us, sentimental folks might recall their own romantic moments. My special memory begins in the early 1990s, when I was the owner of a shabby chic store. Back then, as a thirty-something single mom, it wasn\u2019t easy to make ends meet selling the discarded treasures of others. Auctions, flea markets, and garage sales were the way I stocked my vintage shop.<\/p>\n
One summer day, I stopped at an estate sale. The attached garage of the stately brick home was filled with the earthly goods of an elderly widow. As she walked towards me, the old woman\u2019s fragile condition caused her to lean heavily on a three-pronged cane. She was liquidating over a weekend, what had taken a lifetime to collect. Her gray hair was disheveled, and her eyes reflected the resignation that must have cost her a great deal. The widow needed to sell everything and move to a place where she wouldn\u2019t be alone. The newspaper\u2019s classified ad didn\u2019t say all that, but it didn\u2019t take much to figure out. I decided to buy a few things to help her in her season of transition.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven\u2026a time to keep and a time to cast away<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n I had always liked this insightful wisdom from the Book of Ecclesiastes, but the verses weren\u2019t very comforting in light of this woman\u2019s heartbreaking circumstances. After all, it was my \u201ctime to keep,\u201d and her \u201ctime to cast away.\u201d That\u2019s why I let her do all the talking. I never even asked the stranger her name, since she didn\u2019t volunteer it.<\/p>\n There was a vintage blouse among the possessions I selected to purchase. When the Fifty years later, her husband was gone, and she could no longer care for herself. Reluctantly, she gently handed the blouse to me. My original intention was to resell it, but learning the garment\u2019s history, instantly my plan changed. Before I realized what I was doing, I blurted out, \u201cI promise you that I will keep it always.\u201d I\u2019m not sure, whether the aged woman gave me a look of disbelief, relief or resignation.\u00a0Her reaction didn\u2019t matter. I made a promise and I intended to keep it.<\/p>\n I hung the bodice on a satin hanger displaying it with some antique hats on an oak coat rack in the apartment where my young son and I lived in the back of my little shop. I never planned on wearing the lace top, because being divorced for over a decade, I assumed my days of being a bride were over.\u00a0 Eventually, I closed the store, and Zach and I moved to a nearby condo so I could work as a producer\/reporter for WTLW TV 44 and he could attend high school.<\/p>\n A couple years after Zach moved out, I met Larry Claypool. We had our first dinner together on June 8, 2001. I wasn’t really into dating, and my assumption was that Larry would simply be a good Christian friend. He was a forty-something school administrator who had never married. Yet almost right away, we both felt that divine providence had brought us together.<\/p>\n On February 9, 2002, I sensed that Larry was going to propose. That As they say, “time flies,” because it’s hard to believe, but this June Larry and I will celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary. The vintage blouse remains a cherished memory of my own proposal coupled with another bride\u2019s long ago wedding day. Unfortunately, I will never know her name. Still, I intend to keep my promise to her to keep it, for as long as time allows.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With Valentine\u2019s Day upon us, sentimental folks might recall their own romantic moments. My special memory begins in the early 1990s, when I was the owner of a shabby chic store. Back then, as a thirty-something single mom, it wasn\u2019t … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Lace-Bodice-1-larger-file-225x300.jpg\")
widow saw it, her eyes seemed to look far away. It was as if she was transported to another time. A time when she was young and in love, and her future lay before her. Decades earlier, I think she said it was the 1940s, the lace top had been part of her wedding attire.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Engagement-photo-001-300x218.jpg\")
morning as I dressed for our date, I instinctively reached for the ivory top, which represented decades of a marriage that had lasted. I had never worn the blouse before, so I carefully removed it from its satin hanger and put it on over an off-white camisole. Larry surprised me by taking me to the Swan House Tea Room <\/a>in Findlay, Ohio, where he knelt down on one knee, and asked me to be his wife. The busy teahouse filled with women fell strangely silent. When I said, \u201cYes,\u201d the hushed patrons erupted in congratulatory applause and joyful laughter.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Swan-House-Tea-Room-300x225.jpg\")
In 2017, an older never-married-friend whom I hadn\u2019t seen in over 15 years invited me to her bridal shower the first week of February at the Swan House. Exactly fifteen years to the week of my romantic proposal there. It was only right to wear the antique top to the tea room again. And not coincidentally, since we know there are no coincidences with God, my dear friend Michelle Redmond was attending the shower as well. She and her husband, Pastor Thom Redmond, were there to celebrate with us when Larry had proposed to me in that very room 15 years earlier.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Cover-My-photo-jpeg-for-web-use-smaller-version-150x200.jpg\")
<\/a>Christina Ryan Claypool is a freelance journalist and inspirational speaker. She is the author of several books including, “Secrets of the Pastor’s Wife: A Novel”<\/a> available on Amazon and all other major online retail outlets.\u00a0 Contact her through her website at www.christinaryanclaypool.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n