Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay
To the Ludlow grandchildren, tired after running and playing at Rest Stop No. 5, the murmur of conversation between their grandparents as they continued on their journey was the best lullaby … the harmony of basso profundo and alto meant security and love and a family that would not be broken up again.
Still, Capt. R.E. Ludlow pulled off to the side of the road to look back and make sure all seven grandchildren were sound asleep before getting into the other reason for their journey to Big Loft, VA. He needed to pick up a police report for evidence of why the Lofton Trust was going to pick up the cost of major therapy for him, but the other side of that was that because of his complex PTSD, the therapy needed to be inpatient because too many extreme anger and combat situations were likely to surface for the captain's young grandchildren to live safely around. But that meant the Ludlow grandparents were going to have to live the house, and so...
“I wonder if they are ready for it all,” Mrs. Thalia Ludlow said.
“I pray about it daily and almost hourly,” Capt. Ludlow said. “We have only had all seven of them for six months, and some of them are not going to take it well.”
“Oh, I'm not worried about that because I already know you: you will be on Zoom with them as often as you can.”
“Woman, do you know me or what?”
“After 15 years you think I would, Robert. You're steady and predictable and devoted, and I love it and so do they, so they will be fine. I was talking about Harry and Maggie, with all seven of them.”
Capt. Ludlow chuckled.
“I pray about that daily too,” he said. “You know Harry's attitude about practically everything – that calm just absorbs it all. He keeps telling me, 'I've been through losing my wife and child in childbirth at 18, not becoming a mass killer when my Slocum-Lofton family mocked that, then Special Forces, Black Ops, Judge Advocate General, and a total of 24 Good Years of service. Seven sweet little children who want to love and be loved in return do not register as even a little bit of a problem.' And I keep telling him that seven little children will take you places you're going to need all your Army training to handle!”
Mrs. Ludlow chuckled.
“Lee men are the most stubborn men in Virginia,” she said, “except maybe for Ludlow men.”
“Woman, do you know us or what?”
“Lil' Robert, Grayson, George, and Andrew are going to be a handful for Harry – Lil' Robert and George are surely going to test him because he's not you.”
“Yeah, those are chips off the stubborn Ludlow block. Grayson and Andrew are too, but you know Grayson is going to go 'gottagobye' before he gets into a situation, and Andrew will be there talking about, 'Look, y'all – Papa is Capt. 'Hell to Pay' Ludlow but Cousin Harry is Col. Henry Fitzhugh “Angel of Death Lee – you gotta do your research on these nicknames before bossing up!' Harry will have the four boys helping each other out – he is the consummate unit leader, and our little ones already know how to operate that way.”
“No worries about Maggie,” Mrs. Ludlow said, “but, I get it. Everybody loves Maggie.”
“Next to you, Magdalena Milano Thornton Lee is the ideal woman,” Capt. Ludlow said. “What she has done in Harry's life is God doing a miracle through her. That love in her … men and children would bow down to her and never think twice about ending up in hell doing it just to be exposed to that, not knowing that what you are getting is what happens when a woman gets to know and trust the Lord young.”
“There is something to be said for that,” Mrs. Ludlow said. “Maggie, and also and Aggie, Ironwood's wife, are very like that – and Aggie and Ironwood have eleven of their own. How that woman is not running mad has to be the power of God.”
“Aggie Hamilton still has so much energy it makes me tired to consider it, Thalia – that New York energy – she built Ham it Up into a business and has everyone fully employed, so those kids are going to be SET. I hope we can do as well as she has done, given that Cousin Ironwood was deployed most of that time.”
“But, back to Harry and Maggie … they are glad to do this because they need to learn some things to help them make some decisions. If Maggie gets pregnant this year, Harry will be almost my age when their first child is Eleanor's age... and, like me, Harry has some complicated issues. Some of his are that Lee legacy of bipolar disorder, and also he has been exposed to some tough chemicals and toxins. He and Maggie both have lost a birth child, but they are not sure they want to be us in 12 years... both of them have shared with me that they are really thinking of going into lay ministry with families, especially veterans' widows and orphans, and also adopting older orphans.”
“Wow,” Mrs. Ludlow said. “Maggie is only what – 35?”
“Not even that – she's 34,” Capt. Ludlow said. “But you know Harry – until he is ready to have a child, he won't, and he never waits on anyone else to decide his life. He got the snip quite some time ago, and it would have to be reversed.”
“Whoa,” Mrs. Ludlow said. “Very few men are that hard-core – but then again, that is Harry we are talking about.”
“When he found out the Army has had his mental health diagnosis since he was 18, and hid it because they wanted to use him, he had that done,” Capt. Ludlow said. “Not that Harry was not a chaste widower, but that given what he had endured, keeping it together while not knowing, it was not a struggle he was going to pass on, under any circumstances.
“And then there's the other thing: the Army isn't going to let him all the way out. He's too young with his skil lset. He's officially retired, but there's no guarantee that he's going to be settled in for all that long.”
“Does Maggie know all of this?” Mrs. Ludlow said.
“She does – Harry laid out all the complications. Maggie had plenty of suitors... he gave her every reason to choose a different one … but she's like you. Courage and love running hard, full, and sure.”
“I guess so,” Mrs. Ludlow said. “She's just 34 … that's a lot, but you're right: Maggie is a lot like me, really strong and loving and unbothered by a lot of things that worry other people. She trusts in the Lord and keeps moving.”
“I'll tell you what she doesn't know, though,” Capt. Ludlow said. “She doesn't realize how much money Harry has, and how much he still has to inherit. She keeps running around with his repentant and saved Slocum-Lofton grandmother without understanding that when Selene Slocum-Lofton dies, Harry and his cousin Sarah are going to get all of her fortune – and she's not done at 84, growing that fortune.”
“Women like Maggie and I never worry about all that,” Mrs. Ludlow said. “You'll be a multi-millionaire before you leave this world, Robert, but a captain's salary was plenty, because you were generous and giving and caring and devoted – you made me know you loved me, for real, and you have never made me doubt it. I see Harry loving Maggie the same way, and women like us feel that if we have the man who loves us, we already have everything.”
Capt. Ludlow smiled.
“Y'all keep talking to each other while Harry and I keep getting our post-Army lives together, and before it is done, we might just hand you as much of everything as you might enjoy, just for believing in and loving us.”