Forrest & Lilly

Forrest & Lilly, 2003

The love of Forrest and Lilly knew no depth and relied upon no conditions. They never regretted their decision to marry, nor did they ever regret any decision made in their marriage. Lilly lived and worked beside Forrest for fifty eight years, keeping house, tending the vegetable garden, and looking after the chickens and the pigs. Even when separated from one another in a group, you could always find one looking proudly and lovingly across the room at the other. They wrote notes to each other. They smiled at each other across the choir loft in church.

Forest and Lilly had no children. But they loved to dance. They had met at a dance hall in Galveston, where sleepy-eyed girls danced with cowboys to languid cancions, fast mariachis and slow ranchero ballads.

When Lilly died, Forest found a man with a 10-string guitar to sing at Lilly’s graveside.

You are my dream, my whisper, my light.

These are the only things I need to live.

And all I am I have to give you.

Be with me forever as you are tonight.