There are a few kinds of couples. There are the couples that constantly bicker, the Al and Peg Bundys of the world. It is awkward to spend time with these couples, because you feel like you’re in the middle of something you wanted no part of. Are they really fighting? Is this actually how they talk to one another? You make assumptions that they love each other and have an odd way of showing it. We’ll refer to these couples as the Bickersons.

Then there are couples that don’t really bicker, because that would require some communication. These couples coexist. They aren’t particularly unpleasant towards one another, but aren’t exactly loving either. They don’t share hobbies and may not share blankets. These couples seem to have sunk into a routine. We will call them the Grays – and I doubt there are fifty shades.

Other couples are the Odd couples. The ones that you were surprised to learn they were dating and shocked to get the wedding invitation. You just can’t make sense of them. The shock wears off the longer they are together, but the oddness lingers. Perhaps these are examples of opposites attract?

IMG_0526Then there are the couples that you look to for relationship goals. These are the Dynamic Duos. These are the Chip and Joanna Gaines of the world. Couples like this are matches made in heaven. The other types of couples may love each other, they may even be happy, but these are the couples that set the bar.

No one aspires to be Mr. or Mrs. Bickerson. Surely no one aspires either to be boring or odd, it just happens. A couple that qualifies as a Dymanic Duo is intentional about their couplehood. They intentionally lift each other up, they fill their days with laughter, and love each other well. They build a life together as a team. They are simply better together.

This is the type of couple that Mike and Vicki were. If you knew one of them, you knew their heart belonged to the other. It was obvious. They were a fun-loving pair. You couldn’t think of one without the other and you couldn’t think of them and not smile. When we learned Vicki was in a serious battle with cancer our first thoughts were of Mike. Vicki was as sweet as they come and she had Mike wrapped around her finger since they were teenagers. Mike lost Vicki in August, cancer won as it all too often does. And last week, fewer than six months after her passing Mike died too. A broken heart disguised as a heart attack. Neither of them had taken great care of themselves, but I’m willing to bet that if Vicki was still around Mike would be too.

Mike liked to share stories of their youth growing up in New York. His gravelly voice a combination of cigarettes and East Coast. Some of his stories were greeted with Vicki’s quick wit and perhaps even a stern “Michael” depending on how much he’d embellished. Their eyes twinkled with mischief, as if they were up to something the rest of us knew nothing about. While my heart is sad to have lost these two, I delight in knowing they are together again. Heaven saw a Dynamic Duo reunited. Let the shenanigans begin.

~M

 


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