Short Stories

Validity of a Vow

by PamFord Davis 
02/12/21
Free to Share
Author requests article critique

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

"I Adam, take you Eve, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish from this day forward until death do us part."

The groom swooned over his bride and tried not to reveal his confusion about the vows he had made.

How could it get any better than this?

What is worse?

I live in paradise and every day is sublime.

God provided all of Adam’s needs. He walked in the midst of riches and fruit. Even gold was easily gathered. He never gave a thought to being poor. He enjoyed perfect health and had never been a witness to death.

"Eve, I take you as my bride."

Eve remembered that commitment and wondered how she could have been so naive as to believe the serpent’s lies. The better days were behind her and Adam; she experienced worse than she could have imagined.

God had banished them from the garden,

Adam toiled endlessly; food was scarce, and labor pains for two sons were nearly unbearable. She craved more of Adam's love. Yet; her love for Adam, Cain and Abel sustained her.

As both wife and mother, she felt needed. God had promised death for disobedience; what was death?

 She learned death was the cruelty of Cain and the victimization of Abel. His blood cried out from the ground and Eve had an emptiness that even the love of Adam could not fill.

Eva placed a bookmark in the Genesis chapter. She closed her Bible and placed it on the nightstand in the nursing home room.

She’d been daydreaming again.

The characters in scripture were as real to her as the nurses who cared for her. The Bible was not merely history; writers shared details of lives of real people. She had empathy for Eve.

Her own heart had felt the joy of becoming a bride; their wedding vows still rang in her ears. Eva turned her head slowly to the left.

There, she saw Charles; her mate of over 65 years, with his head slumped over onto his chest. He was asleep again in his wheel chair. A nurse had wheeled him close to the window and encouraged him to watch the birds.

He had paid no attention to birds and little to Eva during the last three years. The doctors diagnosed him with Alzheimer's disease.

He slipped away into a world of his own and the walls of separation were formidable.

Eva felt the heartache of death long before any preacher would share a eulogy.

Preacher Gray knocked on the open door; entered and greeted Eva with a smile.

 "Good morning Eva. What have you been up to?"

"I was just been reading from Genesis and thinking about Adam and Eve… the marriage vows and how little couples understand what they mean…

It seems like just yesterday…

 I, Eva take thee Charles."

Her words trailed off across space and time.

The squeaking of a small movement of  Charles wheel chair wheels broke the silence.

With a whisper Charles spoke…

"Till death do us part."