A Long-Lived Married Couple

 There is a cemetery
a way off in the East,
And there a solemn headstone,
Stands over two deceased.

A long-lived married couple;
A woman and a man.
This cautionary story,
I'll tell you, if I can.

She was a churchy woman;
A service, never missed.
While at home, in quiet,
He thoughtfully reminisced.

She chastened, and she scolded,
But he would not attend,
In all of that loud-shouting church,
He could not find one friend.

He would not sign the roster.
He would not say the prayer.
She fretted for his hell-bound soul
Till she was in despair.

Her mother came to comfort her,
As only mothers can,
How sad that she had wedded
Such a wicked man!

He'd rather hunt the mountains;
He'd rather plow the sod,
Than go up to that righteous church,
And make his peace with God!

She argued and she wrangled.
He quietly refused,
Sometimes deeply saddened,
Other times, amused.

He tried to give his reasons.
She would not understand.
And though she sorely tempted him,
He never raised his hand.

When he laid down with illness,
(The pertinacious knave!)
She went to buy a marker,
To place upon his grave.

She settled on a scripture
She thought would fit the scene.
Most fittingly applicable;
Job three, verse seventeen.

She spoke with the officials,
To make it clear to them,
The second half was meant for her,
The first half was for him.

She thanked the Lord her righteous
Would be forever known.
His wickedness, her weariness,
Memorialized in stone.

Then, at an unexpected time
Appointed of the Lord,
The church-attending lady
Went on the her reward.

She widowed her sad husband,
Who took her to her grave,
Not knowing the instructions,
His clever wife had gave.

He chose for her the better place-
His dearly beloved bride!
Underneath the willow tree,
Beneath the "Wicked" side.

His grief kept him from noticing.
His eyes were dim with tears,
As he laid his wife away,
Of many, many years.

Soon after that, he joined her,
To rest beneath the stone,
For he soon grieved himself away,
Too sad to eat alone.

So, in a cemetery
a way off in the East,
There a solemn headstone,
Stands over two deceased.

Their epitaphs are opposite,
God did what He thought best,
For the wicked ceased her troubling,
And the weary man has rest.


There the wicked cease from troubling;
and there the weary be at rest.
Job 3:17