A week ago yesterday, two men named Richard went Home to Heaven.Richard “Everett” was 86, and went Home after a long bout with Parkinson’s.

Uncle Dick was only 56, when a wreck on the drive home from work took him Home forever.

When Everett could still come to church, I remember going over to ask how he was doing. I would always hold his hand while I talked to him, and he would always tell me my hands were cold. But he never could remember the rest of the phrase about “cold hands, warm heart.”

I remember getting to know Uncle Dick and his boys two summers ago. Uncle Dick had a big laugh and a big heart. He made his boys toe the line, never let them say a word of disrespect to their mother, yet they loved him so.

Everett’s grandson shared at the memorial service that he had a lot of memories about his grandpa, from the Louis L’amour books by his chair to the way he’d grab onto an electric fence. But those memories would fade, he knew. What he would never forget was the impression that was made on him when he woke up at Grandpa’s house to see Grandpa and Grandma reading the Bible together every morning. As my pastor said, if all he knew about Everett was that he’d been married to one woman for 62 years, he would already know what kind of a man he was.

After we’d cried a while for Uncle Dick’s family, my man was remembering, “Uncle Dick loved my Aunt Dixie so much. They’d been married for probably 30 years, and she still sat on his lap and kissed him in front of all the family.” I’d never seen them together, but I had known from the way Uncle Dick spoke of his wife that they were the perfect team and had always kept that something special between them alive.

Everett leaves behind his wife, 3 children, 8 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren. Uncle Dick joined his own little daughter in Heaven, leaving behind his wife and their 17 other children (some of their bodies, some of their hearts).

I want the kind of marriage that lasts 62 years, like Everett and Bea’s. I want to be the kind of wife who never stops acting like I love my husband. And I hope my husband’s eyes always sparkle when he talks about me, just like Uncle Dick’s eyes lit up when he talked about Aunt Dixie.