Mormon grandmother finds a 'Dream Man' (October Song)
St Petersburg FL Times 29Oct99 P2
By Jacquin Sanders

TARPON SPRINGS, FLORIDA -- Mormon grandmother Elaine Low has married for the third time, and this time its an Event. "This time I want to be married in a church." she said before the ceremony began, "I want flowers all over the place and a beautiful long dress. I want to walk down an aisle with about 100 relatives watching. I want flower girls and an organ and a bagpiper piping Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms. I want . . . I want. . . ." Low, who is 78, married 86-year-old Colin McGregor on October 23rd.

Low's previous two marriages ended with unfaithful and abusive husbands. After raising four children, she and her first husband spent nearly a decade serving LDS missions throughout the Pacific -- Samoa, the Cook Islands, Korea, etc. "Loved the people -- I had such good times with them," remembers Low. "Four of us would sit on the ground around some fabric we were working on, and we'd laugh and tell stories."

But over time the missions grew less pleasant, and her husband began to loose his 'sense of identity,' according to Low. "The day I knew he was not himself anymore was when he asked why I didn't walk five paces behind him, like an Asian woman would. I gave him his answer. "In a pig's eye,' I said." She then discovered that he had a Philippine concubine that he wanted to bring back to the U.S. The marriage soon ended.

More than 20 years into her second marriage, Low's children noticed that she wasn't herself, and soon discovered that her second husband was abusing her verbally, if not physically. They helped him get into therapy, but the marriage didn't survive, and Low was single again.

Her new husband, Colin McGregor, retired over 20 years ago as chief purchasing officer for the state of Michigan. His tenure their included service to five Michigan governors (likely including LDS Governor George Romney, who was Governor of Michigan in the 1960s).

This time, Low has high hopes for their time together. McGregor is a widower who cared for his wife of 64 years as she struggled with a fatal illness for the last three years of their marriage. "I took care of her 24 hours a day. That's what you do when you're married." And this attitude is something McGregor will carry into this new marriage. When asked if Low could cook, he replied, "Sure she can cook, and so can I. I can clean, too. In fact, I can't sit still and watch somebody else working. I have to jump in and help."

Overhearing this, one of the great-granddaughters said, "Dream man."