Husband and wife Melvyn and Doris Amrine of Little Rock, Arkansas, have been happily married for 60 years.
Three years ago, Melvyn was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. His family worries about his declining memory, especially when he leaves the house without telling anyone.
And that’s what happened the other day causing Doris to panic and call the police. Melvyn went missing as told to the Stir.
It’s true that Melvyn has forgotten many things. He cannot recall when he proposed to Doris and other important memories. But their love is bigger than a memory. Sometimes love lives so deep within us, we don’t need to know the why or the how … we just know. This is the kind of love that Melvyn and Doris have.
Melvyn has purchased flowers for Doris every Mother’s Day since their first child was born. He hasn’t missed one. It was the day before Mother’s Day that Melvyn went missing. It turned out that he had gone to the store to buy Doris flowers. He wanted to surprise her so he didn’t tell her, but considering the circumstances, it caused alarm. When the police went out in the area to look for him, they found him two miles from home nearly at the store to purchase those flowers for his wife, the mother of his children.
Sgt. Brian Grigsby and Officer Troy Dillard found him and he told them that he wasn’t going home with them, that he had to buy these flowers for Doris. “We had to get those flowers,” Grigsby told CBS News. The officers took him to the store to buy a dozen roses, and when Melvyn came up short in paying for them, they paid for the balance as well.
There is love in this world. Love for those closest to us. Love, even, for strangers.
Our minds will forget things, but our hearts never will. When Doris saw her husband returning to the home with the flowers in hand, she said, “he went there to get me flowers because he loves me. “Then added, “It’s special, because even though the mind doesn’t remember everything, the heart remembers. Thank you. Thank you. Because I saw his heart.”