posted December 25, 2000 12:47 AM

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every morning Lula's brother lifts her into the living room chair and she sits there for hours, a blanket draped over her withered legs. She watches tv, or reads, or stares out at the golf course where dry leaves skitter in the wind...
the days are short and dim now- so different from last summer when lula johnston, at age 94, walked through a world lit up by love.
her college sweetheart had found her, 76 years after their first kiss, and romance bloomed once again. they married in june. five weeeks later a car crash ended their honeymoon.
now she is alone again.
"i know why your here" she says, straightening in her chair, speaking so the tape recorder catches every word.
She's a curiousity, Lula understands marrying at an age that most people dont even live to see. but she also knows her story reaches deeper, touching anyone who ever loved and then parted, only to wonder if someday there might be a second chance.
In sept 23' Lula pakham was barely 18, a farm girl just starting classes at southern idaho's albion state normal school.
She met Paul Johnston the first day. A second year student at the two year teaching school, he stood just 5'4" but carried himself with confidence. He looked tall to Lula, who was just 5'2".
they gravitated toward each other at school functions, hay rides, picnics, dances,. After one dance Paul escorted Lula home. He stepped inside, kissed her and then quickly left.
the romance was on.
"i'd gone with boys in high school, but that was nothing" lula says "they were just boys, paul was really my first love"
Paul graduated the next spring and left to teach at a school in eastern Idaho. Lula took summer courses then quit school to teach first grade in Malad city, 80 miles from paul.
For xmas 24' paul gave lula a book called 101 famous poems. it was bound in leather with a thin red ribbon bookmark tucked to page 107, a poem by robert browning called "summum bonum".
truth, thats brighter than gem
trust, thats purer than pearl-
brightest truth, purest trust in the universe-
all wer for me
in hte kiss of one girl
for two years paul and lula kept up a long distance relationship, writing letters and seeing each other infrequently. neither had a car and telephones were not for idle chat in those days.
Lula loved paul but she was puzzled. Since he never spoke of marriage she started dating others. She assumed paul was doing the same. Lula socialized with a group of teachers in malad city. a math teacher named laurence marschat seemed especially fond of her. they spent more and more time together, and she realized she was falling in love with him.
But what about paul??? near the end of 26' lula wrote to him. larry had asked her to marry him she wrote, and she was thinking she'd probably say yes.
paul never wrote back.
Lula didnt know-how could she?- that paul was too heartbroken to reply. she didnt know-for he had never told her- that he had planned to marry lula all along.
Lula packham became mrs. laurence marschat in june 27'.
the newlyweds moved to oregon where larry pursued a creer in public ed and lula looked after their growing family. she had thre children in all.
paul married too, adn he and his wife sara eventually had four kids.
lula wondered about paul every now and then.
"but he wasnt important to me at that time of my life. i had a husband, three children, i was very busy". said lula.
in 87' larry died of a heart attack. lula age 82 was on her own after six decades of marriage.
Her health was excellent, her mind was sharp and she didnt feel old. but she found the world made certain assumptions about her. people started speaking loudly to her, even though she could hear them fine. strangers called her lula instead of mrs. marschat.
as for the world of passion well dont be silly. old ladies dont fall in love, even lula believed that.
Last april 21, a letter arrived in the mail. it was from paul johnston.
"dear lula" it began "i think of you often".
she called him that night.
he told her his wife had died in 97'. he said he lived in boise but had family in oregon and wondered if lula would mind a visitor.
she wouldnt mind at all she told him.
Lula had wondered how they should greet. with a handshake? with a hug? what was proper? what did she want?
three days later the wondering ceased. when she saw him on her door step paul had white hair and was slightly stooped, but he still looked tall to lula.
"he held out his arms and i just walked into them" lula said.
paul proposed 2 weeks later and they married june 10th.
"at age 94 time is of the essence" lula says.
the newlyweds were inseperable. they shopped together, they read poetry to each other, they knew their time could be short. maybe no more then a year or two and they meant to make the most of it.
lula recalls paul saying "when we die i just hope we can die at the same time"
lula agreed, that would be best.
On july 18th, lula woke up ready for adventure. she wanted to pick peaches at an orchard 20 miles away.
lula drove. about halfway there along a straight stretch of two lane highway an oncoming car veered across the center line.
the crash broke lula's leg, sternum, and several ribs. Paul suffered a dislocated hip, a crushed hand, broken ribs and a fractured vertebra in his neck.
Nurses wheeled paul into lula's hospital room for visits and the two commiserated over the indignity of it all.
"we would have died that day if they had just left us alone" lula says.
Their fragile bones mended slowly, paul was transferred to a nursing home aug 8, two days before lulas 95th birthday. on sept 5 lula moved into pauls room at the nursing home.
they were in beds 10 feet apart. lulas legs were parralyzed from a surgical complication. paul couldnt hear well and lula had a bandage around her neck making it hard to talk.
Two days after lula arrived paul took ill in the night with an infection and high fever. aides rushed him out of the room and lula knew he wasnt coming back.
"i didnt have time to say i love you" lula says. "as they took him out, i just said 'Goodbye Paul'. there wasnt anything else i could do.
Paul died sept 9, six weeks later lula moved out of the nusring home and in with willis and gena, her brother and sister in law.
doctors predict she will walk again, though it may take a year of therapy. friends tell her things will get better but lula has her doubts.
how is life for her now?
"torture" she whispers. "its just hard work. i'm truying to survive each day and hoping i'll do better the next".
On a nearbye table lies an old leather bound book. the thin red ribbon is still tucked to page 107, and lulas visitor reads aloud.
"..all were for me in the kiss of one girl".
Lula smiles.
On the day she and paul wed there was showers in the morning, but the clouds soon parted, and raindrops sparkeled everywhere. for the next month, it hardly rained at all, and to lula it seemed the world was bathed in a golden glow.
"it was much brighter and happier" lula says. "everything was beautiful. it didnt matter that he was old or that i was. it didnt make any difference inst that fnny what love does???"

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