From This Day Forward

Eva Wilson-Mullins and Jim Mullins wed at The Lutheran Home

�It wasn�t a special day, it�s just our special day now,� says 82-year-old Mrs. Eva Wilson-Mullins, as she recalls her and 81-year-old Mr. James �Jim� Mullins� wedding and why they chose that specific date. �We decided at our age, why should we wait a long time,� Wilson-Mullins adds. �Love doesn�t leave you just because you�re old. We found that out.�

On November 10, 2018, the couple said �I do� at The Lutheran Home, the place where they both live and became acquainted with each other.

Eva Wilson-Mullins is escorted down the aisle by her son.TYLER GRAEF ~ tgraef@semissourian.com

Wilson-Mullins moved to the assisted living facility in July 2017, and Mullins showed up a few months later after a medical incident. They met at a musical event hosted by The Lutheran Home.

Jim Mullins waits for Eva Wilson-Mullins at the end of the aisle on their wedding day.TYLER GRAEF ~ tgraef@semissourian.com

�I came here assuming I was just going to come here to die,� Mullins shares. �That�s the way I felt. I was sitting in the corner, kind of staring at the floor, and Eva came over and started talking to me.�

�I had tears down my face because I had lost a family member, and the music made me sad,� Wilson-Mullins recalls. �Ms. Diane, one of the ladies that helps us, dried my eyes and talked to me. Jim heard all of that. So after she was gone, Jim told me, �You�ll feel better after while.� After the concert was over, I thought about how nice of him it was to notice and make a comment, so I said to him, �I want to thank you for being a friend,� and he put his hand over mine and said, �We�re friends forever.� That was the way we first connected.�

The couple enjoys accompanying each other to group activities at The Lutheran Home. Sometimes, they take drives. Their most recent one was to see the color-changing fall leaves. The couple bonds over their shared enthusiasm for Fox News and reminisce on the days when they could still jitterbug. Mullins gives Wilson-Mullins all the credit for �breaking him out of his shell.�

�I�m a person that likes to get to know people when I�m around them,� Wilson-Mullins says. �I�d go from table to table when I first got in. Each day, I�d learn a little bit more about those people. Jim was one of them. I thought he was an interesting person because he stayed in his room all the time and he kept his door closed most of the time. He just didn�t have contact with people, and I felt bad for him. So I began to talk to him when I would go by in the morning. If the chair didn�t have a person in it, I would sometimes sit down and talk a little longer.�

�We just kept talking,� Mullins says. �When I was a park superintendent, I had to be friendly with everybody. I thought I had lost that ability. I was afraid to be social. She brought it out of me.�

�The more I talked to him, the more I liked him,� Wilson-Mullins adds.

Diane Winningham, a member of the activities staff at The Lutheran Home, says Mullins and Wilson-Mullins were �meant to be.�

�The last time we had music in here, right before they were married, there were no tears,� Winningham says. �They were just so happy.�

They invited all of the residents to their wedding ceremony and stood under a �great big flower arch,� Mullins says. He wore a boutonniere and a suit, and Wilson-Mullins wore a maroon dress and a double strand of small pearls around her neck.

�There were all kinds of flowers, they looked like wildflowers,� Wilson-Mullins says. �Mostly bronze and yellow-colored. We just said we wanted something that looked pretty, and some people even took a bouquet of flowers home.�

Mullins waited for Wilson-Mullins at the end of the aisle with the reverend and his nephew as his best man. Wilson-Mullins� son walked her down the aisle, and her best friend and fellow resident Lettie stood by her side during the ceremony.

�There were just a little bit of jitters because of all the people,� Wilson-Mullins says. �I was happy and Jim was happy; it was a delightful experience.�

A week after the wedding, both of them agree that things have been great, and Mullins says he thinks things will always be great.

�We don�t know how long it�ll be, but we will be together,� Wilson-Mullins adds with a smile.