Love Grows On
by Trisha Leone
For a lot of us, when a relationship ends, we write it off as a mistake. We blame, we regret, and we try to forget and move on, Like an earthquake, the repercussions radiate through family members and it changes our perceptions of what we think love is or isn’t, and what we think it should or shouldn’t be. We tell ourselves stories of what went wrong and lose sight of all the things that went right. Every relationship has gifts, some are easy to name, such as children, and others unseen, something we learned about ourselves. Relationships change us. It’s part of our history, the story of a family, a story that matters, to us, our children, and our grandchildren.
It was my first year of college and I was on Christmas break, still grieving the November death of a close childhood friend. Some friends and I went out to a country bar in Boulder to dance. I was only 17, so it had to be a 3.2 bar. I think I must have had a fake ID that said I was 18. That was in the days of Urban Cowboy when it wasn’t hard to find a place with a country band. I loved to dance, I still do, although these days it’s usually to a rock or blues band. He wore a silver belly cowboy hat and drove a rental car with Arizona plates because he had just rolled his truck. We danced. I dropped out of college. A few months later, he bought me a young sorrel horse named Dan, moved up to the mountains, and hired on at Drowsy Water Ranch as a wrangler. He needed a red checked shirt for the square dance on Friday nights. I sewed one for him with a solid red yoke and cuffs and pearl snaps. I made myself one to match, and then made two more for Randy Sue and Ken Fosha’s little boys. We listened to Chris LeDoux, and the Starlight Ramblers, Hoyt Axton, and Don Williams, and dreamed in western color. There were always horses and dogs. After Dan, there was Credit, Susie, Smokie, Guy, Money, Buster, Chex, Barney, a dozen rodeo broncs and several others I don’t remember. He wanted to be a cowboy. I wanted to be a mom. We both got our wish.
There was cancer, twice. A fall from a ladder, which resulted in a helicopter ride to Denver and a black and blue appearance at his dad’s funeral. Lots of rodeo runs, riding saddle-broncs, roping and wrestling steers. He hit the dirt and got back on, gambled with fate, and was never afraid to bet it all. Days turned into months and then to years—five, ten, twenty. There was love, happiness, joy, anger, sorrow, and pain. We grew up, made choices that we believed in, and lived through the consequences.
I knew you when you hung the moon. When you were a young cowboy whose dreams went on for miles. Who gave me the gift of two sons, and that will forever be the greatest gift of this life.
Song lyrics
Love Grows On
She knew him back when he hung the moon
He made her heart beat fast
Young love in full bloom
It showed in their smiles
Sparkled in their eyes
And their dreams went on for miles
CHORUS
Love sprouts up when you least expect it
It grows wild and free, like a wayward vine
Once upon a time, two hearts came together
But what they didn’t know then is that the story never ends
Love comes around again and again
And grows on and on and on
Love grows on and on, love grows on
A couple of kids with stars in their eyes
Playing their hands like bandits
in a game of real-life
Sometimes they were winning
and sometimes they were losing
Making it look like they knew what they were doing
Years went by and they went their separate ways
But the love they planted long ago
Still has something to say
A tiny heart that beats
Little hands and little feet
Love is alive and it’s never been stronger
