Charles Boyer 查尔斯·博耶（在线收听）

[00:01.48]Charles Boyer 查尔斯·博耶

[00:04.54]This is kind of personal. It may get a little syrupy, so watch out.

[00:10.78]It started as a note to my wife.

[00:12.97]And then I thought that since some of you might have husbands or wives and might feel the same way,

[00:19.08]I’d pass it along. I don’t own this story, anyway. Charles Boyer does.

[00:23.36]Remember Charles Boyer? Suave, dapper, handsome, graceful.

[00:28.50]Lover of the most famous and beautiful ladies of the silver screen.

[00:32.21]That was on camera and in the fan magazines. In real life it was different.

[00:37.69]There was only one woman. For forty-four years. His wife, Patricia.

[00:42.71]Friends said it was a lifelong love affair.

[00:45.44]They were no less lovers and friends and companions after forty-four years than after the first year.

[00:51.35]Then Patricia developed cancer of the liver. And though the doctors told Charles, he could not bear to tell her.

[00:59.13]And so he sat by her bedside to provide hope and cheer. Day and night for six months.

[01:06.65]He could not change the inevitable. Nobody could. And Patricia died in his arms.

[01:12.57]Two days later Charles Boyer was also dead. By his own hand.

[01:17.49] He said he did not want to live without her. He said, “Her love was life to me.”

[01:23.40]This was no movie. As I said, it’s the real story—Charles Boyer’s story.

[01:28.43]It’s not for me to pass judgment on how he handled his grief.

[01:32.25]But it is for me to say that I am touched and comforted in a strange way.

[01:37.72]Touched by the depth of love behind the apparent sham of Hollywood love life.

[01:42.87]Comforted to know that a man and woman can love each other that much that long.

[01:48.77]I don’t know how I would handle my grief in similar circumstances.

[01:52.92]I pray I shall never have to stand in his shoes.

[01:56.00]But there are moments when I look across the room

[01:59.06]—amid the daily ordinariness of life—and see the person I call my wife and friend and companion.

[02:06.50]And I understand why Charles Boyer did what he did.

[02:09.77]It really is possible to love someone that much. I know. I’m certain of it.