“I met Cleveland on Easter Sunday on April 9, 1950, in Fayette, Alabama. I was 15 and had just started noticing boys. Aunt Myrtle was my Daddy’s sister, and her daughter, Barbara, was a year older than me. Cleveland’s brother was going with Barbara, so Aunt Myrtle had Cleveland and me over for their Easter egg hunt. That afternoon Aunt Myrtle asked me to get her stockings out of her car, and Cleveland followed me. I was bashful and didn’t have much to say, so I got in the car and locked the door. Cleveland told me to unlock it, then he sat in the car and talked with me. Aunt Myrtle took a picture of us in front of the car-I still have that picture of the day we met.

I didn’t hear from Cleveland until I went to town with Mama and Daddy. We stopped at a red light, and there he was about to cross the street. Cleveland saw me in the back seat and winked. We started writing letters once a week and gave them to Aunt Myrtle for secret delivery. I told Cleveland not to put his name on the back of the envelopes because I didn’t want my parents to know.  I kept every letter he wrote me.

Cleveland was 18, and we snuck around to see each other. We sat on Aunt Myrtle’s swing, talking and daydreaming about our life together. Cleveland gave me a pretty necklace for Christmas. When Daddy asked where I got it, I fibbed and said it was Barbara’s. I once told my parents I was going to Aunt Myrtle’s house to let Barbara roll my hair. Daddy was worried that I would be scared walking back in the dark. I told him would carry a flashlight, but Cleveland walked me back.

Aunt Avis once took my sister, Sudie, and me to town, and we snuck off to see Cleveland. Aunt Avis returned home and told my parents she couldn’t find us. That didn’t go over well with them, and they went to get us. We were walking around town with Cleveland when I heard a horn honking. I froze because I knew it was Daddy. Cleveland quickly left, and my parents told me that I couldn’t go anywhere without one of them. That meant no Cleveland, and I was mad.

The following Monday, Cleveland came to the schoolhouse and said we should get married on Friday. I couldn’t do that; Daddy would kill me. Cleveland said he wouldn’t know until after we were married and insisted on meeting me at school on Friday morning. I was scared to death all week.

Cleveland and I had already planned on getting married when he got out of the Army, and he was giving me an engagement ring for my 17th birthday. But my parents’ punishment pushed me into eloping and marrying Cleveland sooner. It was better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Cleveland picked me up at school on Friday and put a ring on my finger. Sudie and Barbara skipped classes and went along for our wedding day.

We drove Highway 96 to get married by the justice of the peace in Columbus, MS, but we almost didn’t make it. Daddy guarded convicts for the state of Alabama and carried a .38. When we saw some of his convicts working on the side of the highway, Sudie and I hid on the floor of the car in case we passed Daddy.

At the courthouse in Columbus, the judge asked my age. I told him 18 — the fibs came out so easily. We were married, then drove back to Fayette and dropped Barbara and Sudie at school. Cleveland and I went to his parent’s house because we were scared Daddy would come with his gun to get me.

Mama and Daddy were setting out cabbage and onions when Sudie got home from school and told them I ran off and got married. Daddy didn’t even know I had a boyfriend and sent word for Cleveland to come see him. It worked out okay, and my parents soon loved Cleveland. My only brother was killed on a motorcycle shortly after we married, and Mother and Daddy took in Cleveland as their son.

Cleveland quit school in seventh grade and went to work; he worked in the cotton mill for 42 years. I dropped out of school in the ninth grade and got a job with him at the mill. We had our first child when I was 18 and swapped out the day and night shifts, so one of us was always with our young children. I drove them to the mill in our only car. When the whistle blew, Cleveland ended his shift and took the kids home while my shift began. We kept taking turns.

The mill threatened to fire me if I didn’t work on Sunday, so I quit. I got my GED and a job in quality control at the glove plant.

Daddy gave us two acres of land on his farm, and we built a four-room house. We didn’t have running water because Cleveland refused to go into debt. I carried the water from the spring to our house, but that didn’t last long. We moved back to town so I could have plumbing and running water. Daddy later gave us more land, and we built another house with one bathroom and indoor plumbing.  I came home from work and Cleveland was painting our new bedroom brown. I had to stop that, so I started painting one wall bright yellow. He had to change colors and paint the rest of the room yellow before he could go fishing.

Cleveland and I were married for 65 years. For our 50th anniversary, our children gave us the wedding we never had with a cake and flowers, and we got to be a bride and groom. That night, our son told the story of two teenagers who ran off and got married fifty years ago. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

Cleveland passed away in 2016. Our anniversary is February 23, and this year would have been 72 years. It was a rainy and dreary day on our anniversary, so I got out our love letters. I read all of mine to Cleveland, and I read all of his to me. That man loved me.

Long ago, a friend at school told me she dreamed I was going to marry Cleveland. I was 15 years old and had never heard of him. Then it happened. So many things could have gone wrong and stopped us, but we were meant to be.”

Louise

Part One