Eternal Love: Poems from the First 70 Years

The great love stories in history and fiction often somehow ended in tragedy or loss, which Lolita Jardeleza always thought was sad. Why were there no stories of great romances between ordinary, everyday people who married each other, raised children, paid mortgages, had spats, became grandparents—even great-grandparents—had arthritis, and used walkers? Romances lived and loved in “normal lives” are the real ones. These loves didn't go up like a burst of fireworks but burned on like stars, year after year, unabated, soul-satisfying, deliciously nourishing, and mind-blowing day after day. Jardeleza offers hers as proof.

Lolita Jardeleza is the joyful mother of eleven children, grandmother of forty-six, and great-grandmother of thirty-eight--and counting. She is a professed Secular Franciscan who has taught and counseled students at the Academy of the Holy Cross in Kensington, Maryland since 1979.