The Greatest Compliment: "She was my best friend."

Below is a story I posted back in 2009 about two of very dear and special older friends, Sam and Sugar. 

This past week Sugar went to be with the Lord.  She had been sick for sometime but did not suffer much in her last days on this earth.  As I went to view her in the casket she looked so peaceful and like she had just gone home, because she had.  She went to rest from her many years on this earth.  There was never a sweeter woman than this one.

Before the funeral I sought out Sam.  I saw Don his son pushing him in his wheelchair trying to make their way through the massive crowd as people kept stopping them to speak to Sam.  I waited in the background until they were alone. I walked over and knelt down and put my hand over his. Though his heart was broken in grief, Sam’s face lit up and said “Hey my friend. So good to see you.” We talked briefly about a few miscellaneous things before Sam said something I will never forget.  He looked at me and said softly, “You know, she was my best friend don’t you?”  I responded “Yes sir, there is no doubt, she was your best friend.” 

After almost 73 years, of all this man could have said about his beautiful relationship with his wife, he said, “She was my best friend.”  What a testimony.   Through all the achievements they accomplished together including staying committed to one another, for better for worse, for richer for poorer,… in sickness and health, till death do them part, they accomplished something equally as beautiful. They managed to remain friends until the very end. 

Don’t know about you, but I was inspired. I am inspired to be a better man. And, a better friend to my wife. I want her to be able to say when the Lord calls me home, “He was my best friend.”

I’ve got a lot of work to do.

Mitch


A Story about Sam and Sugar

    Posted by Mitch Temple on January 21, 2009 at 10:58pm
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Let me share a sweet story with you. It’s the story of my good friend Sam and his wife Mildred, affectionately referred to by friends as “Sugar.”
Sam and Sugar began their lives together while Big Band music filled the air, almost seventy years ago. Sam hired me over seventeen years ago as he served as an elder of a large church in Alabama. Though our worlds were separated by over forty years, we became the finest of friends. Sam became a spiritual, vocational and even marital mentor to me. Through the years, I carefully watched how Sam and Sugar loved each other at a deep and rare level.
I also had the honor of walking with them through some of the most difficult chapters in their life. I was at the hospital when the doctor told Sam that Sugar might not make it through her illness. She was in the hospital for weeks, attached to wires, tubes, monitors, and respirators. We prayed and prayed together, asking the gracious Father to give them just a little more time together.
The Lord granted us our petitions. Sam and Sugar have weathered numerous storms together since then, but they’re still together.
Once when we were talking over a cup of coffee, Sam spoke of the darkest, loneliest memory he’d ever had. It took place at about four in the morning, in the dead of winter, as he was leaving for the German front during World War Two. With tears in his eyes, Sam recalled looking back through the window of a passenger train, through the clouds of smoke thrown up by the steam engine, to see Sugar crying, holding their three-year-old son. He said he would never forget seeing his family fade into the darkness behind him as he journeyed toward two of the most horrific years of his life.
Neither Sam nor Sugar knew if they would ever hold each other again. Sam’s heart ached and yearned all the way through war. The only personal items he was able to hold onto throughout the entire campaign were a picture of his family, a New Testament, a toothbrush, and a blood-stained dollar bill.
Though Sam wanted to return to his wife and son, he was also a man of extraordinary patriotism. Once, as his platoon neared a darkened beachhead, German forces unleashed a torrent of fire. Sam’s comrades and friends were falling all around. The amphibious duck (armored sea vehicle) they were in was ankle-deep in blood. The cries of the dying were as loud or louder than the artillery.
Though Sam’s picture of Sugar and his son were warm to his heart and ever before his mind, he jumped into the water grabbing a mounted machine gun. Sam began firing the weapon while walking straight into the oncoming fire screaming from a German bunker. Sam felt that if someone didn’t do something, his entire group would be wiped out.
Because of Sam’s unwavering courage, he was able to destroy the bunker single-handedly. The lull in enemy fire allowed the American forces to land on shore and eventually destroy and capture the enemy army. Many years later Sam was honored with the Bronze Star for his bravery.
My friend was a war hero. A real, live hero.
But Sam was just as great a hero to me because of his faith and family life.
Sam and Mildred are the epitome of soul mates. For almost three-quarters of a century they have been loving each other unconditionally through the storms and valleys of life. Both almost ninety years old, they move slower and with more care than they did seventeen years ago.
But they still kiss before they go to sleep.
They still go to worship together almost every Sunday.
And they still hold hands.
It is what the hand-holding represents that keeps Sam and Mildred together: oneness. Unwavering oneness.
I recently received an email from Sam. In answer to a question I asked him about Sugar, he said, “Sugar is my soul mate. The choices we made together are what forged our souls. We are at the point in our life where we thank God before we climb out of bed together each day that He has graciously given us one more day to enjoy being together. After our thanks, we humbly ask Him for one more day together. Though we yearn for heaven, we love each other so much that we want to hang out just one more day. We really are each other’s best friends. We are what Jesus asked us to be…one.
“No, we are not perfect. I still get on Sugar’s nerves a lot, especially when I can’t hear what she says. We still have an argument here and there, but neither of us has enough energy to finish it. But we are one. I believe that God is preparing us each day He gives us together for our journey through eternity together.”
Now, that’s a marriage worth working for, don’t you agree? Don’t let the myth, “I made a mistake—I didn’t marry my soul mate” rob you of it. (*Taken from: The Marriage Turnaround, Moody Publishing, Copy write 2009).