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After six decades, love blossoms again
We’re proud that Weldon and Lois Nations’ wedding announcement is on page 3C of this week’s newspaper. While they might be a year or two older than our average bridal pair, the information seems fairly straightforward.
Weldon Nations, 79, and Lois Kuykendall Queen, 75, were married last month at the Church of God in Whitter with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in attendance. A reception was held in the church fellowship hall. Pretty ordinary stuff, right?
Wrong.
Weldon and Lois first met 60 years ago, when he was home on an eight-day leave from the U.S. Army. Almost 19, he had been drafted before he could finish school and was on his way from Florida to Fort Meade where he was to be posted to India. She was almost 15 and a student at Swain County High School.
Weldon borrowed his sister’s car so he could take Lois out. The young couple was quite taken with each other, and posed for a photo (see page 8A) before Weldon shipped out. Judging from the picture at right, taken this past Monday, the two are still pretty struck on each other.
But wars and separations don’t make it easy for a pair of young sweethearts to keep in touch, and Weldon and Lois both “got to going with other people,” and found themselves in long, satisfying marriages.
“I lived a happy life for 56 years with my first wife, and Lois lived 55 years with her first husband,” Weldon said.
Lois’ husband died a year before Weldon’s wife passed away last December.
Though he saved the photos Lois sent him while he was in India, Burma and China, Weldon said he didn’t think about Lois much before she called him this past June.
“I hadn’t seen her in more than 50 years,” he said. “I didn’t know whether she was alive or not.”
Their “matchmaker” turned out to be Lois’ cousin, Ruby Jones, who had gone to school at Ravensford with Weldon and lives near him in Whittier.
Weldon Nations and Lois Kuykendall (top) were teenagers when they went out during World War II while Weldon was home on leave in 1944. After 50-plus year marriages to other spouses, Lois was widowed in 2003 and Weldon’s wife passed away last December. Now the former sweehearts are husband and wife. Adding a special honor to their Sept. 25 wedding day (below) was the presence of Weldon’s mother, Bessie Nations, who’s 103. “She had six children and this was the first time she’d seen any of us get married,” Weldon said. Bessie Nations remembered Lois, who’d visited while Weldon was overseas.
“I talk to my cousin pretty often,” Lois said. “She had told me about his wife. I prayed quite a bit about it, and then I finally called him.”
Then Weldon takes over the story.
“Oh, yeah, I was glad to hear from her,” he said. “She asked me where we could meet, and I told her where I went to church and where I sat. When she came up and met me there, we hugged in the church. I was telling the others about her and how she said she was going to come to church that day, and I looked around and there she stood.”
Lois said that when she saw him, she recognized him right away.
“I thought he still looked so much like himself,” she said. “The more we talked, the more we became connected. There were so many things we agreed on. When he asked me to marry him, I said, ‘Yes, I will.’”
Lois was a little surprised when he popped the question, but she had already given the matter some thought.
“I was hoping he’d ask me,” she said.
Lois is quick to give the credit for their recent marriage to a higher power.
“I feel like the good Lord directed us to each other, and I thank him for it. I feel like it was all his doing.”
Weldon, a retired carpenter who worked in Western Carolina University’s maintenance department, and Lois, who retired from Stanley Furniture in Robbinsville, seem content with their newlywed status.
“We’re being very happy,” Weldon said.
“We love each other and are very happy,” echoed Lois. “The main thing is, we’re both Christians. We feel like if we can talk about things and pray about them, then everything will work out fine.”
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