Eternal Love

The name of American industrialist Henry Ford (1863–1947) is forever associated with the Ford Motor Company and the development of the assembly-line method of industrial mass production. But not much is said about his wife, who supported him for fifty-nine years. On April 11, 1888, Henry Ford married Clara Jane Bryant, and the couple initially lived on farmland given to Henry by his father.

By 1891, they had moved to Detroit, Michigan, where Ford began working as an engineer for Edison Illuminating Company.

With a flexible, on-call work schedule, Ford began developing his Quadricycle, a four-wheel, self-propelled vehicle with a gasoline engine.

During those early years, the Fords lived in ten different rental homes. Clara believed in her husband and supported him, even with no concrete evidence that his inventions would ever succeed. Finally, on June 4, 1896, Ford test-drove his Quadricycle down Detroit’s Grand River Avenue. James Bishop, his chief assistant, bicycled ahead of him to alert passing carriages and pedestrians of the oncoming automobile.

In 1903, the Ford Motor Company was incorporated, and in 1908 Ford introduced the Ford Model T. That was just the beginning of an extremely successful business enterprise. Henry Ford could never have become what he was without the support of his beloved wife. He said of her, “If anyone thinks I’ve done anything in life, they should remember that my wife has been a great helper. I don’t believe I would have got far without her. She has always believed in me and backed me in whatever I’ve attempted.” In 1940, James Bone asked Ford what he would like to do “in a future incarnation.” Without reluctance, Ford answered, “The only thing is I should like to be sure of having the same wife.” Henry and Clara Ford not only helped launch the car industry but also left their legacy of a solid marriage. Genuine love is not an unreliable feeling that is shaken by adversity.

It is an unconditional commitment. Such commitment is expressed well in Ruth’s plea to her mother-in-law Naomi: “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die —there will I be buried. May the LORD do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you” (Ruth 1:16, 17, NRSV). May this unconditional love unite the marriages of our church!