Have you Ever loved someone so much....

Margaret's Grocery - Art Environment - Abandoned - Vicksburg, MS

Have you ever loved someone so much you would do anything for them? Are there limits to what you mean by "anything"? Would you dance to no music in a room full of strangers while they all watched never knowing what you were doing? Would you write poems with plans and promises of love lasting beyond this life and into the next? Would you build them a temple of tile and bottles just to show them your love?

In Vicksburg, MS, that's exactly what Reverend HD Dennis did when he married Margaret. And it all started with a promise.

When Reverend Dennis first met Margaret, she was the owner of a little store on the outskirts of Vicksburg. She didn't have much, but she had that store. It didn't take long for Reverend Dennis to fall in love with Margaret. And when he fell, he asked her to marry him. To sweeten the pot and prove his love to Margaret, Reverend Dennis promised her that if she married him, he would turn her little store into a place that people would come from all over the world to see.

And that's exactly what he did. Little by little, he built art onto and around the little store. And little by little, it became the art environment known as Margaret's Grocery. Margaret's Grocery also became a shrine to the promise of love.

Margaret passed away in 2009 and Reverend Dennis followed her in 2012. Since that time, Margaret's Grocery has slowly declined into ruins. Many pieces have been placed in storage for preservation and a hope to eventually rebuild. But too many pieces have been lost to vandalism and thief.

But, if you have a chance to stop along the roadside at the site of Margaret's Grocery, you may just get a glimpse of promise of love and how that promise was kept.