On two people, who loved each other...

Little did Dolores know that when she went to dinner with her landlord that she would end up falling in love with him, as her eyes locked with those of her future husband’s. He owned the restaurant, and in his non-existing spare time pined over the local seamstress who happened to be the daughter of a friend of Dolores’ landlord. Immediately captivated by her beauty and elegance, they conversed, laughed, and fell deeply in love. Within a year, this educated, spry and worldly woman would be engaged to this hard working, troubadour of an Italian man. His name was Phil.

There was something about Phil’s unconditional kindliness, featherlike manner, and a presence that invited unfailing trust. You felt comfortable telling him your deepest secrets before you would even think to tell him your own name. It was no surprise people love and adored this barbershop crooner, prince of a fellow, and affable Italian, not the least of which - his beloved Dolores.

Later, underneath the vastness of an east coast sky, the scrolls of providence would scribe them on a private beach on a still evening, sitting and listening to the droning of the evening waves. She had her suspicions that the moment was impregnated with something monumental because Phil insisted on accompanying her to the beach instead of working his normal routine. If not for their sitting hand in

hand, his knee would have found the sand to ask her the question she had answered a thousand times in her head. As the heavens smiled down, a symbol of this monument was placed upon her finger, as carefully as a flower upon a grave.

One humble wedding and a Puerto Rican honeymoon later, they moved into an apartment on the east coast and began their fairytale with furnishings purchased with the little they had saved. Their love would produce two beautiful children.

Throughout the days, Dolores would be with Gianna and John to attend to their coming into their own. And despite Phil’s daily laboring at the hotel and restaurant from 6am to midnight, he stayed up with the babies as they cried and demanded father’s exhausted attention. Besides for the love of his children, he so wanted a weary Dolores to rest peacefully throughout the night.

Both shared a strong Christian faith and felt strengthened within that community. It would be a lie to say that the barbershop community didn’t also give them marital strength and supportive community, fine tuning their laughter and joy to the sound of Divine Love.  A common determination to raise aware, fiercely independent, and self motivated children also gave them a common resolve, and this tied the strings of their love all the tighter, allowing them to walk further hand in hand.

Her daughter, with all the care given to her, would give it in return the day health required both of them to move from the East to the southwest, bringing them into her home. Gianna and her loving husband welcomed them as their own, giving them the care and strength they needed and certainly deserved. Their adopted daughter now had the blessing of having her grandparents living with her, becoming the apple in both their eyes.

Mortality seems to find us all at some point. As Phil inevitably would enter into his final days, Dolores would gently hold his hands, with the same gentleness he embodied daily, singing and sharing so many happy memories they had collected over the years. Even if he couldn’t physically respond, she sang on because Dolores knew he heard and relived each one. These would be the final songs he would hear. I’m sure if you listen quietly enough, the echoes, however faint, can still be heard. It might sounds like the song their life in constancy, sang:

"Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. 

O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life."