ARLINGTON, TN (abc24.com) - After 62 years together, an Arlington woman is spending her first Christmas without her missing husband.
83-year-old George Nicholson disappeared in June 2011 on his way to a Tunica casino. His truck was found a month later in a ditch, but he was never found.
Lula May Nicholson never thought she would spend a holiday without her husband, especially not under these circumstances. It's the mystery of not knowing where he is that's the most difficult for her to get through.
In the 1970's, about 20 years into their marriage, Lula May Nicholson painted two angels to symbolize her and her husband George.
"I think about him. I miss him. I really miss him," she says, "We were close, we did everything together. We danced together, square danced, ballroom danced, gardened together and I'll miss that."
Every day without him is difficult. "It's just dead," she says, "I get up in the morning and cook breakfast, sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. I've always cooked breakfast for us and now you don't even want to cook."
Her home always gleams with treasures of the season, Christmas is her favorite time of year. "I fix a big meal, we play Bingo and have round the table fun with each other." She says, "It's not going to be like that this year though. I dread it."
His stocking sits above the fire place. His pictures all around. "I cry a lot and I talk to him. I have pictures all over and I talk to him," she says, "but that's all you can do."
Married at just 18 she never pictured a Christmas could be like this, her, home alone, waiting. "Awful," she says as she fights back the tears, "You can imagine. Just to know he's laying somewhere and you can't find him, that's what's so hard."
Anxiously she'll watch her hand painted angel, hoping that somewhere her real angel is at peace, looking down on her.
