Romance on a Mississippi steamboat

I found romance on the Mississippi River. I found the kind of romance that tickles your soul and warms your heart.

I found the kind of spectacular romance that inspires Hallmark cards and movies and women spend years of dreams searching for.

And just as important as heart-sputtering romance, I found love. Sweet, enduring, inspiring love.

Have you ever taken a riverboat cruise, the kind that uses steamboats to cruise up and down Mississippi and the adjacent rivers? If you haven’t, you should. The mighty Mississippi is romantic in itself, but the couples that travel on those boats are quite a sight to behold. After all, it takes romantic people to recognize romantic settings.

I was hired by the Delta Steamboat Company of New Orleans to tell stories on two of its three distinctive vessels. I spent several days on the Mississippi Queen before transferring in Memphis over to the Delta Queen, the grandmother of the fleet that was built in 1927 with rich woods and an elaborate grand staircase. On each boat, I found couples that brought absolute delight to my soul.

Joe and Jeri have been married for 62 years. He is 90 but looks 75 and is the spitting image of Mark Twain. I first thought he had been hired by the company to play the legendary steamboat captain. Jeri, small and petite, has long, tumbling blonde hair and long, red fingernails. They are utterly devoted to each other. It is obvious from all the hand-holding and sweet, gentle words that are exchanged, always with a loving smile.

It’s obvious for another reason.

Joe has been on dialysis for three years. Every third day, he must undergo several hours of the strength-sapping but life-saving treatment. They love the steamboats cruises so much – when I met them, they were on their 39th trip – that they refuse to let the inconvenience stop them. So, for many months in advance of a trip, Jeri works prodigiously to set up dialysis appointments at port where the boat docks.

“You have to book them months in advance or you won’t get an appointment,” she points out.

Then, she accompanies Joe and afterwards rubs the place on his arm where the tube has been inserted.

“I do it because it brings him comfort and because I like being so close to him.” She shivers with the delight of a young girl in love.

He smiles warmly. “I don’t know what I’d do without my girl.”

On the Delta Queen, I met Clifford and Ethel. He is, in all likelihood, a savant. Think Dustin Hoffman in “Rain Man” and you have the accurate picture. Ethel lacks Clifford’s genius for numbers for hers is a simpler mind. Together, they are the most perfectly adorable couple you can imagine.

Clifford speaks in a sing-song voice, always ending his sentences with two notes harmonizing together.

“Hello, Ronda Rich,” he would sing. “How is Ronda Rich today? I hope Ronda Rich is doing very good.”

He opened the door for Ethel. “After you, my darling,” he rhapsodized with a glowing smile.

“How long have y’all been married?” I asked the 57-year-old Clifford.

“Eight years,” he hummed then beamed from ear to ear. “I still feel like a honeymooner.”

They dated for 17 years. “Why didn’t you marry sooner?” I asked Ethel, 64.

“He didn’t ask me. But as soon as he did, I jumped at it.”

“You are my sweet darling,” he sang out.

She grinned broadly, happiness bursting from every line in her face. “You’re my sweet darling, too.”

Aw, the lovely Mississippi River, where either you find romance or romance finds you.