The Marriage Bond

“A couple of weeks ago Helen and Kenneth Felumlee passed away after 70 years of marriage. They met as teenagers and felt an instant attraction towards each other. What we may flippantly call love at first sight is actually a realization that God has brought together two people who are meant for each other.

After several years they eloped across the river from Cincinnati, OH to Newport, Ky where they could legally marry, as Kenneth was still two days shy of his 21st birthday.

According to their eight children, the couple was inseparable. They ate breakfast every morning holding hands and once slept in the narrow bottom bunk of an overnight ferry, rather than being apart for even one night.

Helen died on the afternoon of April 12. About twelve hours later, Kenneth looked at his children and said “Mom’s dead.” He then began to fade quickly and passed away in the morning just fifteen hours after his wife of 70 years.

Their daughter, Linda Cody, observed that in their later years of declining health, they tried to stay strong or each other, they kept each other going.”

This happens more often than you might think. Couples who will not let anything keep them apart, not even death. It is a striking example of the marriage bond, the most important element of a marriage.