Older couple at Mayo Clinic charms onlookers

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is famous for its medical expertise and care. They installed a grand piano in the atrium of the Gonda building which is used often by people who want to share the gift of music. This older couple did just that. Fran and Marlo Cowan, married 62 years, played Old Grey Bonnet to the great joy of the people in the atrium. Some who where there were using walkers, others were in wheelchairs. The couple's playfulness with each other and joy of life lifted the spirits of the people who were waiting there, some for cancer treatments. Fran turned 90 in February...but his energy and joy was contagious.

This is a snippet from the Mayo Clinic blog of a daughter who had brought her mom for a cancer treatment and they both watched and heard the couple play the song.



"And then we heard the piano and the laughter. From the balcony we could see an older couple sitting side by side at the piano playing together and entertaining a host of people. Some were in wheelchairs, others were sitting with canes beside them or standing. Everyone was smiling with all burdens forgotten for the moment. The joy was absolutely indescribable. When we asked them to play one more for us, Fran and Marlow Cowan, who have been married for more than 62 years, treated us to an exceptional performance that is now a “youtube” sensation."

Turning attention to the married couple, 62 years together and counting, it is God's way that marriage should be loving and playful and committed. He set it up that way.

"The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh." (Genesis 2:18-24)
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