{"id":9313,"date":"2012-09-19T12:03:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-19T17:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.familylife.com\/flministries\/?p=9313"},"modified":"2012-09-19T12:03:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-19T17:03:00","slug":"ive-never-once-stopped-loving-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/articles\/topics\/real-stories\/marriage-real-stories\/lifelong-marriages\/ive-never-once-stopped-loving-you\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I’ve Never Once Stopped Loving You’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Sometimes our lives are affected by unexpected and unlikely encounters. For Rich Frischkorn, one of these encounters occurred when he was a young man.<\/p>\n

Rich patrolled a neighborhood where a couple in their late 90s lived. He regularly parked his cruiser under a massive ficus tree growing at the corner of the elderly couple\u2019s property. With its huge spread of branches, the tree provided welcome shade as he sat in his patrol car and completed his daily reports. If the elderly couple were out in their yard, they\u2019d walk over to him and talk.<\/p>\n

As time passed, he noticed there was something very different about the aging husband and wife\u2014the way they looked at one another and smiled \u2026 the way they worked in their yard together \u2026 the way their hands interlocked on their evening strolls.<\/p>\n

One day the young deputy sheriff observed the elderly man mowing a neighbor\u2019s yard. Almost 100 years of age, he later told Rich that he was helping because the woman was \u201ctoo old\u201d to mow her own grass.<\/p>\n

Rich watched the couple pick up mail for neighbors who were out of town. He saw them drive friends to a store or doctor\u2019s office. He anticipated their offers of cold lemonade or tea on hot afternoons.<\/p>\n

In Christ\u2019s name<\/strong><\/h5>\n

He wondered about the source of the couple\u2019s love and care. Over time he learned the answer: All was done in Christ\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Their curiosity about Rich\u2019s spiritual condition touched him. They\u2019d often comment that he was in a dangerous job and ask, \u201cDo you know where you will spend eternity?\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019d answer that he\u2019d probably end up in hell. And they would say that he could avoid that.<\/p>\n

One day when Rich was filling out reports, the elderly woman tapped on the window of his cruiser. She held a vase with freshly picked flowers.<\/p>\n

She told him to look at the flowers\u2014really look. Then she asked if he thought the flowers could have been created by chance. \u201cNo,\u201d she told the young officer. \u201cGod made these for us to look at, marvel at, and wonder.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Rich could do was gaze at the woman with the lined face and say that she was right.<\/p>\n

Day after day Rich patrolled the neighborhood. He watched the aging couple pull weeds together in their flowerbeds, never more than an arm\u2019s length apart. One would reach out and touch the other. They\u2019d look at each other \u2026 smile and nod \u2026 and then go back to pulling weeds. Rich thought, How much in love.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rich and the couple became more than friends. They treated him as part of their family. He joined 200-300 people at their eighty-first, eighty-second, and eighty-third anniversary celebrations.<\/p>\n

He laughed to himself when he realized that their children were in their 60s and 70s and some of their grandchildren were in their early 50s.<\/p>\n

The phone call he didn\u2019t want to receive<\/strong><\/h5>\n

As the years went by, Rich feared that the couple\u2019s time on earth was short. He dreaded the day when one of them would pass away. At that time in Florida, if someone died at home a deputy had to come and do a report.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, one evening Rich received a phone call saying there had been a death at the elderly couple\u2019s house. Wanting to be anywhere but their home, he pulled into the driveway.<\/p>\n

He knocked on the door of their two-story house with cedar siding. \u201cWho is it?\u201d the wife asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the Sheriff\u2019s Department.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRich, is that you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it is,\u201d he answered.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, praise the Lord; I\u2019ve been praying a friend would come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rich stepped into the house and saw the elderly couple sitting side by side on the couch. She wore a faded, swirled-patterned dress and her husband had on work pants and a checkered, short-sleeved shirt. His hands were folded in his lap, his chin was on his chest, and he had a pleasant look on his face\u2014as though he were in the middle of a good dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you tell me what happened?\u201d Rich asked.<\/p>\n

She said her husband had been sick the last couple of weeks. That evening they were watching the news and he started having a little trouble breathing. She asked if he wanted her to phone the doctor and he replied, \u201cNo, everything is going to be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

A young man again<\/h5>\n

But it wasn\u2019t fine\u2014his breathing got worse. She rose to call an ambulance, and he grabbed her hand with unusual strength.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may not believe me, Rich,\u201d she continued, \u201cbut he was a young man again. And his face was just glowing and he was smiling and he said, \u2018Don\u2019t go\u2014sit here next to me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

So she sat back down and she heard these final words from her husband: \u201cIn all these years together, I\u2019ve never once stopped loving you. And I love you more today than all of the days gone by. But my Father is calling now and I have to go home. But we\u2019ll be together again soon, and until then know that I\u2019m waiting for you and know that I love you. Good bye.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, his head dropped onto his chest and he was gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in heaven with our Lord and Savior and I will be, too,\u201d she told Rich. \u201cAnd one day you can be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ambulance crew arrived shortly after their conversation. Rich remembers her telling them, \u201cHe\u2019s home with the Lord. He\u2019s home with Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Living color<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Though more than 30 years have passed since Rich\u2019s life intersected with the elderly couple, their example was stamped in living color on his heart. Rich eventually gave his life over to the Lord and became a Christian. \u201cThey planted the seeds [of faith] in my heart,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Whenever he talks about the elderly couple, he mentions their rock-solid faith and how they lived it day after day. \u201cThey were always witnessing and reaching out to others,\u201d he says, \u201cand yet they were never preachy, never pushy, it was just something I wanted to emulate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last time Rich saw the old woman she was more than 100 years old. She was on her hands and knees pulling weeds in her flowerbeds.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery once in a while,\u201d Rich says, \u201cshe\u2019d reach out with her arm \u2026 smile and nod \u2026 and then go back to pulling weeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a9 2008 by FamilyLife. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n

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