Eyes of a Soldier

As the people around her continued to confide in each other and reflect on what a great man the world had just lost, she thought back to the days when she was 15 years old. It was then that she first laid eyes on the dashing man she would later marry. Their personalities were so different they were almost disparate. Opposites attract though, just as with this couple. He was a careless teenage boy from a big family with little money, who dreamed of getting out of the small town he was from. He could even be described as rough around the edges, to an extent. She was a diffident country girl who was raised by a farmer but came from extreme wealth. Being diminutive, she didn’t reach a height of more than 5’3”, while he stood tall and lean and towered over her. Even if they were different in certain ways, the love they shared was obvious. Meeting her sophomore year, his junior year, in high school, it was safe to say she loved him from the day she met him. He had walked into class and had met her gaze. She could still recall exactly how it felt when her cheeks turned red when he smiled at her the first time. From that day on, she had made it her mission to claim him as hers. Even when her parents disapproved and offered her many dictums on falling in love to soon, they fought for each other. And in the end, they won each others hearts. Now, as the sound of taps played, she closed her eyes and remembered the moment when he left for boot camp. Watching him leave was hard, but she promised she’d wait on him. And she did. When she went to his graduation ceremony at Parris Island, her dreams came true when she seen this 19 year old man get down on one knee and ask her to be his wife.