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Coming Full Circle
Her early years were marred by tragedy. A child of the Depression, her sister and her sister’s fiancé were killed in a car
accident when she was 12. She cared for her ailing mother, who succumbed to breast cancer, shortly after she graduated from
high school.
They met in high school; he, two years her senior. He went to OSU, she to nursing school. He met and married his wife of 50+
years while attending OSU; she enlisted in the U.S. Navy, later marrying a former patient. During their adult lives, she lived
with her husband and four children on one side of Cleveland; he, his wife and three children on the other.
As their young families grew, they often socialized with their respective spouses, friends and families. Her husband took
a job and moved the family to another part of the state. She maintained contact with him and his family over the years, via
Christmas cards and occasional visits.
When her husband passed away at 56, he and his wife were there to console her and to offer support. She looked forward to
her semi-annual high school reunions. He and his wife were always there, welcoming her “home.” There was a discernable spark,
ever present, between the former high school friends.
In her late 70s, she suffered a series of strokes, which took a toll on her overall health. However, neither he nor she missed
a high school reunion!
Her physical condition prevented her from continuing to live alone, and her children, concerned for her safety, moved her
to an assisted living community. Although ever gracious in the acceptance of her situation, she often said that she did not
enjoy living with a “bunch of old people;” her youthful spirit fully intact.
His wife became ill and passed away after a long and valiant fight. When he called to inform her of his wife’s passing, she
was unable to travel to the memorial service, but maintained occasional phone contact with him.
On her 83 birthday, he sent her a dozen roses, and the spark between them, which had never gone out, became a flame.
He had remained in his beautiful old farmhouse after his wife passed. Overcome with loneliness, he invited her to live with
him. She jumped at the opportunity to be “sprung” from the “home,” to return to her roots; to be in the company of a man never
far from her heart for more than 70 years.
Although time rendered their bodies frail, their life-long fondness for each other never diminished.
They lived happily in his home, until she suffered a fatal stroke two days after her 85th birthday.
Heartbroken and inconsolable, he passed three weeks later.
Theirs is truly a story of love that transcended time and distance … a love “lost” only through circumstance and “found” for
eternity.
In loving memory of Geraldine Van Orsdale Boyles, aka “Mom.”
Lauren V. Boyles ’74 | Education
Sylvania, Ohio
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