Three love stories, two of them true
by Mira and Charles on August 10th, 2009They say that truth is stranger than fiction. Really? Even when it comes to love? What if the love stories that meant the most to us were just pale reflections of the love we live?
The first of the three love stories I want to talk about is fiction. It was actually called Love Story, and first appeared as a hugely successful novel, then as a tremendously successful movie starring Ryan O’Neil and Ali McGraw. It was about Oliver, a smug, preppy guy who fell in love with Jenny, a young woman who got cancer and died. That was it. Love and death. In perhaps the most memorable scene, as Jenny lies dying in her hospital bed, Oliver climbs into bed with her and holds her. It’s so romantic lots of people cry when they see this. It’s so hyper-romantic that many people laugh at the same scene.
But how over the top is it actually?
The second love story also involves Ryan O’Neil, not in a movie but in real life. Who would have guessed that the man who played Oliver would, thirty-nine years later, find himself in real life in love with a woman who was dying. And amazingly, wonderfully, this man, who in real life has had so many ups and downs and who has disappointed so many people, came through in the end for Farrah Fawcett, the love of his life. Who knows if he actually got in bed with her, but he was there for her, totally, a fact confirmed by her best friend Alana Stewart. The love we have to give is the best thing about us.
The third love story involves someone I know, an old man whose wife was maybe dying. He certainly felt she was slipping away. This was a love story that had gone on for decades. And as he sat by her bed, the old woman whose husband still loved her turned to him and said, “We’ve spend so much time apart since I got sick. Please, come into my bed and hold me.” And he did, not knowing if this would be the last time he would ever touch her. They held each other for hours. He was crying when he told me about this. And she’s still alive, and getting better. Which he never stopped believing in.
Whatever we can imagine may one day become real. Maybe we’d better imagine good things.
