Happily Ever After by Bea Tifton

It’s almost Christmas and we are watching a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies in my household. Many people make fun of Hallmark movies, but there’s a reason those movies are so popular. People love a happy ending. Most people, even people who don’t realize it, have a romantic spot in their hearts. The people in these movies are good people and they fall in love with other good people. However improbable the situation, we suspend our disbelief because we want to know that they end up together. Sigh.

I have belonged to several book clubs through the years, including leading and choosing books. They all had great people in them, but one group of women in particular felt that books with happy endings were unrealistic and without merit. Those people didn’t seem inordinately unhappy, but, really?  Every time two people ended up together or the book ended happily in some way, tied up with a neat ribbon, those people would pan the book. They wanted a book catharsis, real life is difficult, situations don’t really have those tidy little endings, etc. I finally decided that even though I love talking about books with people, and I do, I was going to go rogue and read the books I wanted. Life is hard, not to mention chaotic and unpredictable. The news is stressful and realistic enough.   I feel books with happy endings can be excellent, well written books, and I need to read something that I know will turn out well.

And as far happy couples being unrealistic? I always bit my tongue so I wouldn’t say, “Wow. What happened to you?” My parents are coming up on their 60^th wedding anniversary. When I was younger, there was an elderly couple I liked and admired in my church. They had this easy familiarity with each other and their mutual love and affection was obvious in the way they spoke and looked at each other in any interaction.  Each Sunday as they walked to their car after the service, I watched as they quietly joined hands for the walk together. It never failed to touch my heart.

So I say, watch those movies! Read those books! Be proud that you are still open to life and love!  And above all, live happily ever after.

Photo Credits: Pexels.com
Pixabay "Full Length of Happy Friends in Snow on Field"
Helen Lopes "People Drinking Liquor and Talking on Dining Table Close-Up Photo"
Vlada Karpovich "Happy Elderly Couple Holding Hands"
Andrea Piacquadio "Woman Open Arms While Close-eyed Smiling Photo" 

   

Happily Ever After by Kara O'Neal

I grew up outside. Playing kickball, Hide-And-Seek, Ghosts in the Graveyard, dodgeball, 4-squre and so many others. I did everything I could to keep the sun on my skin.

But if I had to be inside, then I was reading. I had to go places and do things and reading allowed me to do that when it was raining. Or when my mom was being "mom-ish" and making me stay inside.

Honestly, I read a lot. I loved Rudyard Kipling when I was a child. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, especially. I adored mysteries, or tales that took me to different time periods.

When I was around six or seven, my mom thought I ought to read Little Women. Well....

I did.

And then I died. A thousand deaths.

Poor sweet Beth. And then Jo did the unthinkable and rejected Laurie's proposal.

I couldn't understand that. Laurie was PERFECT. I mean, he let them play with him. He was so loyal. He loved Jo so much, and she broke his heart.

As a grown woman, Jo's choices make sense now, but as a child I had no words. I was torn up. Into a million little pieces.

That's when I learned to be scared of the ending.

The next book to destroy me was Great Expectations. Poor Miss Havisham. Poor Pip and Estella.

And then there was Nancy from Oliver. And not to mention Rhett Butler from Gone With the Wind. 

And last, The Little Mermaid. 

I mean....come on!

Then, one day, the sun came out. I picked up my first romance novel.

It was by Jude Deveraux. I had no idea romance novels even existed. I couldn't believe what I was reading! It was page after page after page of people falling in love. And then guess what?????

They ended up TOGETHER.

It was glorious! Oh, happy day!

By the time I found these books I was in college, and let me tell you, I inhaled them. These books taught me that "happily ever after" is possible. That heroes are real. And that happy endings are always better.

What's the point in putting in all the time to read a story only to be let down? I am not ashamed to say that I'm a girl who needs a happy ending. They are far superior than any other finish, and I'm proud to say that I write romance novels.

And thank God so do many of my friends.

So support the gals and gents who bring happiness and love, because it surely does encourage us to keep bring sunshine to this sometimes bleak world.

Kara O'Neal

Texas Brides of Pike's Run Series

Gamblers & Gunslingers Series