By Kim Michael– Original Story by People Magazine as seen on MSN.com
Sometimes I think that love and loyalty and courage all go together. Consider Darrell and Kay Smith of Breckenridge Texas. If you saw a picture of them you probably wouldn’t look twice at it. I can’t show the picture of them because of copyright laws, but Darrell is 48 years old and is as a water utility worker. And Kay, his wife, is thirteen years older than he, a former home healthcare worker; and they both look like the average couple next door, or down the street. They have a twenty-seven year old son, Darrell Jr., who has cerebral palsy and I suspect taking care of him is how Kay spends most of her time.
When you see the picture of them the first thing you notice is they are large people, which is the kind way of saying they are overweight. And I admit, when I first saw the picture come up on MSN. com I passed over it, like most people, without even a second glance; but something took me back to that picture and that story.
I have long believed that some of the most extraordinary acts of faith and courage, and even “love”, are done by the most ordinary of people. And as I read the story about Darrell and Kay, and more importantly, the story “between” the lines, it brought tears to my eyes.
It happened just a few short days ago, major flooding had hit Breckinridge, Texas. Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster across 31 counties as heavy rain continued to fall, up to three inches per hour. Lakes and streams flooded and literally the city of Breckinridge was sinking in a rising current of mud and debris as water levels rose.
At 2am in the morning the family dog began barking and woke the family up. Darrell slipped on his pants and shirt and walked outside to find the street flooded, already knee deep. He hurriedly woke up Kay and Darrell Jr and got them into his truck in an effort to get them to higher ground, but at an intersection close to their home, a wave from a nearby man-made lake crashed over the vehicle and sept it completely off the road and into a ditch that was rapidly filling with water. Darrell was able to push his door open, and the door behind him, to get Darrell Jr out, but when he got to the other passenger door, he saw Kay, trapped in the rising water, face down inside the vehicle. He forced the door open, and pulled her from the vehicle, but there was no sign of life. He tried desperately to give her mouth to mouth resuscitation, but it was too late. Kay, his best friend and wife, was dead.
A kind person seeing the horror that was unfolding took Darrell Jr. on his back and got him to a safety, leaving Darrell alone with the body of his dead wife.
“I couldn’t leave her,” he told People magazine, in an interview later. “She was everything to me.”
He cried out repeatedly for help, but know one came. The water was rising so fast he realized that he had to go, but if he left her, he knew the water would surely wash her body away, and he just couldn’t leave her.
And so, in the pouring rain, Darrell Smith lifted her in his arms and carried her, through the storm and rising water, arms aching and heart broken. He carried her for more than a mile until he found a highway that was not flooded and flashing lights waiting. And there, as he knelt by his wife’s body, he said good bye to his lifelong companion and friend.
It remind me of the poem “Footprints in the Sand”, by Mary Fishback Powers; the story of a man walking beside the Lord and looking back at the footprints of his life in the sand, and he noticed that at the point when he was troubled, and most alone, there were only one set of tracks. And he asked the Lord, why did you leave me? And the Lord replied, “I never left you…when there were only one set of footprints is when I carried you.”
I think we sometimes forget what “love” truly is. It’s not about flowers on Sunday, or romantic trips, or even saying “I love you.” It is in the nobility of a human spirit, irrevocably tied to another, in times and ways that supersede the temporal boundaries of self preservation and even life itself.
Darrell remained steadfast at the side of his wife to the very end, refusing to leave her, even in death.
To some, I suspect, it is foolishness. But I think, we should all be so lucky… to be so foolish.
If you would like to see the original article provided by People Magazine along with the picture of Darrell and Kay, it can be found at: http://thecelebrityauction.co/wp2/cwitter-article/grieving-texas-man-carried-wifes-lifeless-body-through-flood-waters-she-was-my-whole-life-2/