Knightdale Couple Grateful for Love’s Second Act
Gentry and Evelyn Allen attend to one another with the same adoration as young newlyweds. As Evelyn sees it, that’s likely because they never were young newlyweds; both of them were nearing 50 when they met on a motor coach to Swan Quarter in the late 1970s.
“He was the coach driver, and I was going to visit my daughter, who had just started a teaching job down in Swan Quarter,” she said. “I had planned for my daughter to carry me home at the end of that visit, but instead, I took the coach back in hopes of seeing Gentry again.”
Their first marriages had ended, and the children from those unions were by then young adults. Gentry and Evelyn met at a time when both were pondering what middle-age would mean in the face of failed marriages and empty nests.
“I took one look at that girl and I said, ‘Well, hello!'” recalls Gentry, as Evelyn blushes. “She was sure something. Still is.”
The Allens celebrated their 39th anniversary the day after Valentine’s Day; a fitting date, as it turns out, for a couple that stumbled into a second chance at love just when they thought all hope was lost.
“We’ve had this wonderful, successful marriage together because Gentry and I knew what it was to fail,” said Evelyn. “From day one, we felt so blessed that God brought us together, and we have made the most of that gift of love that He gave us.”
The Allens are the perfect team, or as close to perfect as you’ll likely ever see. They bring out the best in one another, playing to their partner’s strengths and covering, when necessary, for their deficits. Evelyn doesn’t mind when Gentry, the more outgoing of the two, insists on making the rounds to speak to everyone in the dining room during meals. And Gentry, for his part, is happy to share Evelyn’s time and talents for the benefit of others. Hers is a servant heart; with hands that are not happy unless they are doing something for someone in need.
As if on cue, the Allens break into song, the tenor of his deep, rich voice allowing hers, bright and bird-like, to register high.
The Allens make their home at Carillon Assisted Living of Knightdale.
Posted in Sage Stories on February 13, 2015