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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt really wasn\u2019t a big deal for me because I grew up with that,\u201d Beth said. \u201cTo me, age was nothing but a number.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As they grew closer together, Beth found more and more to admire about Wayne. At the time, he was living with his mother, taking care of her in her old age. It spoke volumes to her of the care he had for his mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe was always concerned. He said, \u2018I\u2019m 48, I live at home with my mom, who\u2019s going to want to go out with me?\u2019\u201d Beth said. \u201cThat broke my heart because everybody would just look at him \u2014 his physical appearance \u2014 and not look at his heart, and I saw his heart. I saw the kindness in his eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wayne felt the same way and proposed to Beth the week after Valentine’s Day in 1994. That November, 51 weeks after they first met, Beth and Wayne married.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The couple was very similar. They had many of the same interests \u2014 both were active in church, both loved reading and American history, and both loved to travel. Still, there were just as many differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe was very much an introvert. I am such an extrovert,\u201d Beth said. \u201cThe idea of just staying at home on a Friday night reading a book drives me absolutely crazy, yet for him, that was a perfectly great way to spend an evening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beth loved sports, and Wayne couldn\u2019t care less. She would get season tickets to the Liberty University women\u2019s basketball games, sitting with the coach\u2019s wife and encouraging the team. He sat at the top of the stadium with a book. When they were invited to kid\u2019s games, he would go \u2014 but always with a book. At Super Bowl parties, he would come for the food and fellowship, and as soon as the game started, he\u2019d bring out his book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe would come along because he wanted to be with me and he knew that that was something I wanted to do,\u201d Beth said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of their biggest loves was shared, however. Both Beth and Wayne loved children, and while they could never have their own, they worked together for decades as local youth leaders, bringing groups into their house most days after church. Each one of those kids was treated as family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their other love, of course, was for each other, and everyone knew it. They would race to say \u201cI love you\u201d in the morning when they woke up, at noon, at 6 p.m., and at night before bed. That was their daily practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe counted ourselves blessed because so many times, even now, I hear married people \u2014 they\u2019ll call the other on the phone, and it\u2019s rare that you hear them say \u2018I love you\u2019 just once,\u201d Beth said. \u201cWe were saying it four times a day, every day, for nearly 31 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their marriage was certainly not perfect, Beth said, but it was good, and from the beginning, they decided that they would stick those hard moments out. Divorce was never an option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe took our vows seriously,\u201d Beth said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Life was going well for the couple. Beth had gone back to school and received her doctorate, and Wayne was enjoying retirement. Then, one day, Wayne felt bad after walking the dog. It seemed he had a stomach bug. Three days later Beth had planned to file paperwork to run for city council, but they decided to put it off a few more days until Wayne\u2019s birthday. Instead, Beth convinced her husband to go to the hospital for fluids. He almost passed out standing up and was taken in an ambulance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hours later, Wayne was dead. He\u2019d suffered a heart attack that day, walking the dog, and the long wait before he went to the hospital had damaged his heart. Beth\u2019s decades-long marriage was over in moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, she has hope. Beth joined a widows\u2019 ministry, and has shared her story on the radio with the hope that it will reach others who are hurting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGrief hits each of us in a different way,\u201d Beth said. \u201cIt\u2019s never going to be normal, but things that I am going through or have gone through or will go through may help somebody else and may give them hope … There is light at the end of the tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Anything can be found at Walmart, and Beth and Wayne White knew that to be absolutely true. After all that\u2019s where they found each other and nearly 30 years of love. It started as a blind date. Beth worked in night receiving at the Wards Road Walmart, spending the nights unloading trucks and stocking shelves. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":22937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lynchburg-va\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/02\/1-6-1024x683.png\")
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