Unchained Melody!

A Love Story

          1954 Spring time had arrived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He stepped out of his car, with the stature of James Dean and dark wavy hair like Elvis Presley.  She stood there transfixed with her hair gently blowing in the breeze.  As she watched him approach her, she thought to herself, "He is the man for me!"

          They did not know each other, this was the very first time meeting.  The young woman worked with the man's sister as an usher at a movie theater and she kept telling her that she should meet her brother.  Little did his sister realize that this blind date would lead to many more, when only after three short, but very intense, weeks of dating, he asked her to marry him and she said "yes".  Neither could wait to be together as husband and wife, so they went to a Justice of Peace and took their vows.  Only 19 years of age, the young couple moved in with his mother and step-father in a house on Natchez Street, located in Mount Washington, Pennsylvania.  

          This young woman left the only home she knew in McKees Rocks, Pennsylania to move up onto Mount Washington and begin her new life with the man of her dreams.  He had a job working at J&L Steel, just one of the steel mills in the city.  Started as a laborer and worked his way up to a heavy machine operator, she became a house wife.  As the years went by, the young couple became a family, four girls and one boy and times were not always easy.  

       Though not wealthy in the monetary way, this man and woman had a wealth that went beyond money.  They had love!  Not just an ordinary love, they had AGAPE love.  The love that is the greatest of all love.  They would dance while he sang to her and their children would watch.  The children were always provided for, no birthdays were missed, a roof over their heads and food always on the table.  Holidays were celebrated, even when the father was laid off due slow times at the mill or honoring a union strike.  Always the family was taken care of, even if it meant that he would work two or three jobs to do so.  

      As the years past, the children grew and moved forward in their lives.  They married and through the marriages the family expanded to give this man and woman grandchildren.  Though still young themselves, the grandchildren brought them even more joy.  After 34 years working at J&L Steel, he retired.  Suddenly, the man who had left school in his senior to work to help provide for his mother and younger siblings and worked every day, was not quite sure what to do.  She was there to support him, to love him and even get upset with him for now being a slight disruption in her daily routines.  But they adjusted and then it happened!  He needed to have heart surgery.  Only 51 years old and he was going through something that he was terrified of, but he stayed strong because he had her by his side.  The surgery was successful and life resumed at the home on Natchez Street, until just a few short years later.  April 1990, he was back in the hospital, but he came home.   May 19, 1990, while the physical therapist was visiting the man, she asked him if he knew what the day was, he said "yes, it is our anniversary."  She then asked him, what was the best thing he ever did in his life, and he replied; "I married my wife."  Though weak and not one of us realizing that he was dying, the man's love and passion still burned for the woman that he had been married to for 36 years, one month later he was gone! 

      For 36 years, the beautiful young woman with long brown hair and the man of her dreams by her side, was now all alone.  Called home to Heaven at just 55 years old, he was gone.  The world stopped revolving, how was she to go on.  Go on she did, her strength came from the agape love he continued to send her.  One night when she was all alone, she asked him to be with her always and that very night a star that she had never seen in the sky, appeared.  The star remained there so that when she needed his reassurance, she could gaze upon the star and feel his love.  Eighteen years had gone by, she longed for him every one of those days and she would talk to him.  It was May 19, 2008 when He came to her and told her two more years.  But she was not quite certain what he meant.  Many thought she was just imagining this, it was all just a dream.   February 15, 2010, she joined him in Heaven, just days before her 75th birthday.  She had told me that he had been coming to her nightly and staying with her, what she did not tell me was that he was preparing her to join him.  

      You see Agape love is a love that has no bounds.  When you share this love with someone, they are always present with you.  When you need them, they feel it and call you.  When you are feeling low, they surprise you out of the blue with something special or take you out to dinner.  When you are together, you find yourselves in each others arms, dancing and singing.  This love is so intense and extremely rare.  

      This special love is how God loves us and how He wants us to love.  It is a "no holds bar" kind of love.  When Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love God above all things and then the second is to love each other as you would love yourself, He was talking about Agape love.  Love never ending and with no conditions.  Unconditional love, as He loves us, so we are to love.  

       To Samuel and Marlene Palombia, May you be dancing today as you celebrate 65 years together, and may he be singing the song above to you as he did here on earth.  
                                     I love and miss you more and more each day!

                                                       I do not own the rights to the song or video.