For sickness and health, for better or worse. These were the traditional marriage vows that Cherlyn and Bobby Love swore to obey and for 40 years they had done exactly that. But when one night, a strange knock came on their door it was hard to do anything but cry!
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Cheryl was met with making the hardest decision of her life, one which was going to change her as well as her family forever. Should she honour her vows? Or listen to reason? Find out what Cheryl did when she finally found out who her husband really was.
A Vivid Memory
Cheryl remembered the day like it was yesterday, she remembered the knock on the door, the team of FBI officers pushing their way inside her home and demanding to know about her husband’s whereabouts.
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The middle-aged couple had lived a quiet family life together and this hostility was something that left Cheryl shaken. She was sure that the police has mistaken the family for someone else, but one look at her husband’s face and she knew she was wrong.
His Real Name
Everyone was screaming and one officer kept asking Bobby to say his real name but her husband only replied, although half-heartedly that it was “Bobby Love.” It was only when they showed him the warrant, did he finally whisper his true name. One which Cheryl had never heard about.
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The officer was ecstatic after hearing Bobby answer to this new name, Walter Miller and said“You’ve had a long run.” while they handcuffed his husband, Bobby as she had known him for decades and took him to jail.
Meet Walter Miller
Walter Miller had grown up in North Carolina in the ’60s, in a low-income household. Part of eight children, Walter’s mother struggled to support the family and it wasn’t long before the young teen began having run-ins with the law.
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But while other people got away scout free for the same run-ins with the law, Walter’s background and race, meant that he was harshly punished for them. His first crime was rather harmless but the police didn’t see it that way.
First Crime
It was 1964, a time when the Free Love movement and Beatles Mania were just taking off and Walter Miller was busy enjoying his life to the fullest. He was at a Sam Cooke concert when he recalled in an interview, “The crowd was really moving because it was dance music. And Sam Cooke didn’t like that. He kept telling people to sit down.”
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Cooke was so upset by the ruckus that he cut his performance short, Walter who had saved every penny for the show was furious. He, along with most of the crowd shouted at the singer but Walter was singled out and charged with disorderly conduct.
Growing Bolder
Sick and tired of feeling like the law was against him and frustrated with his financial situation, Walter began stealing things. He admitted, “I lifted purses from unlocked cars, I was stealing government checks out of mailboxes, I got bolder and bolder.”
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He knew what he was doing was wrong, but it was either stealing money or going hungry for the week. So, Walter desperate for cash started robbing more and more places. But of course, he got caught and ended up in a juvenile detention centre.
Juvie Experience
Like we mentioned above, Walter always felt like he had the shorter end of the stick and while most guys who go to Juvie, find it to be a breeze, that wasn’t the case for the young troubled teen.
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The other inmates were violet and Walter was picked on every day. He knew he couldn’t just bide his sentence time and had to get out of Juvie to save his life and he did that by hearing the trains outside the detention centre.
Escape
The young and reckless teen had had enough of the gruesome detention centre and plotted his escape. The place wasn’t that heavily guarded and having watched the guards closely, Walter could easily predict when the shifts changed.
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He picked the perfect time when no one was on watching and broke out of Juvie. It all seemed too easy to be true. Walter then followed the train tracks close to the detention centre to make his way to North Carolina to Washington D.C where his brother lived.
The Wrong Fresh Start
Having witnessed just a taste of the prison system, Walter Miller was determined to get his life back on track. He enrolled himself back into High School, started making friends and was looking to get himself an honest part-time job.
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But his fresh start got derailed, when the impressionable teen began hanging out with the wrong crowd. With no parent to guide him and his brother working away most of the time, Walter got fixed in with major troublemakers.
Getting Caught
This new group of friends boasted about being experienced bank robbers and of course, again the cash strapped teen couldn’t help but be enthralled by their stories. They made it seem all too easy and convinced Walter to join them.
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Walter later confessed, “I have nobody to blame but myself. I just enjoyed the feeling of having money.” But of course, it wasn’t easy and during a robbery in 1971, the group got caught while escaping and Walter ended up with a bullet hole and a long list of charges.
30 Years In Prison
Having never experienced a lenient court, Walter knew that he was going away for a long time but never did he expect that rather than juvenile detention again, he would end up in a maximum-security prison for 25 to 30 years!
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The system was rigged against him and no one wanted to help a clearly desperate Walter. During his first years in prison, his mother passed away and the grief of it all woke something inside the troubled man.
Changing His Ways
He decided to distance himself away from violent groups in prison, which always got him in trouble and appealed to be moved to a minimum-security prison. He started going above and beyond to be a model prison inmate and finally, after his appeal being denied many times – it was finally granted.
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And what a difference the new prison made. Walter was able to go outside, talk to his family and even became the host of the local radio show. He was friendly with all the right people and even the guards regarded him well.
Discrimination
But Walter’s bad luck got to him again. The prison captain began to target Walter, as he thought that the young man had “forgotten his place”. The captain would unnecessarily trouble Walter, forcing him to jump hoops.
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He also started getting assigned the worst jobs in Prison and was accused of yelling, though Walter denies these claims. But one of these terrible jobs led to Walter finally escaping the prison system for good.
Picking Up Trash
The young man was assigned the first allotment to pick up trash from the roads, this meant that he woke up before any other prisoners and never had enough time to rest. Also, the job was demeaning at the best of times.
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Walter recalled, “It was awful. People would be throwing hamburgers and milkshakes at you.” But alone with only a few guards to watch him, Walter could easily get a sense of his surroundings and started planning his escape.
The Big One
Walter Miller knew that if he got caught escaping the minimum security prison, he would be surely sent to his old maximum security one and would never be a free man again but living inside Prison was something that Walter just couldn’t do.
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So, one night while the Prison bus was waiting at an intersection near the woods, Walter opened the emergency exit and made a run for it. He heard the shouts and gunfire behind him but didn’t even take a peek. He just ran and ran.
The Plan
The young man had prepared for his big escape, he had stashed some money and worn “normal clothes” underneath his prison-issue jumpsuit. And as soon as he was in the thick of the woods, he took his prison clothes off and started to hitchhike.
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It was the middle of Winter and Walter knew that if someone didn’t take pity on him, he would either get caught or die from exposure but thankfully, a couple helped him get to the Greyhound station, where he planned to catch a bus to New York.
The Birth Of Bobby Love
Walter Miller had no plans of changing his name though but when on the bus, a woman asked him what his name was. He swiftly replied, “Bobby Love,” and that was it. Walter Miller was gone forever.
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The man who arrived in New York was a changed man, Bobby managed to obtain a false birth certificate, social security number, and even a driver’s license. Unburdened of his past crimes, for the first time ever Bobby Love started an honest job.
Here Comes Cheryl
It was there where he met the woman who would complete him. Cheryl was everything that Bobby wasn’t and the two fell madly for each other. She was only 21 years old when she married Bobby who was 34 at the time.
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Bobby later explained in an interview, “Cheryl was soft. Almost in a naïve way.” They soon welcomed daughter Jasmine followed by another girl named Jessica. A decade later, Cheryl bore twins named Jordan and Justin.
Happy Life
Bobby became a complete and devoted family man, working two jobs to support his family and volunteering at church in his free time. While he could never forget the deep scars of his past, they did begin to get softer with time.
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It had been decades since Bobby had ever committed a crime and with one of his siblings passing away, he thought that it was safe to go to North Carolina for the funeral but this was one decision that ended up spiralling his life, yet again.
Not Oblivious
Cheryl really loved Bobby and never asked him about his past, she knew that he had gone through something traumatic but that didn’t mean that she was oblivious to all his strange behaviour.
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She said he “seemed spooked” anytime a stranger approached him, even if it was just to ask for directions. And would never really talk about himself with friends or her family. She knew Bobby had a secret, but never could have imagined that it was this big.
Better or For Worse
The police showing up and arresting Bobby had finally opened the tightly shut lid that was her husband’s life. He was facing the remainder of his prison sentence, plus extra time for escaping.
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And when Bobby broke down and begged for Cheryl’s forgiveness and told her that he would understand if she wanted to leave him, she replied “No, Bobby Love, I married you for better or for worse. And now this is the worst.”
Campaigning For Her Husband
The determined wife didn’t just watch from the sidelines this time, she asked her local community to write hundreds of testimonials about Bobby and what type of man he had become after he had escaped prison.
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She later said, “I didn’t know a thing about Walter Miller, but I told them all about Bobby Love.” All her husband had done was steal a few hundred dollars, a lifetime ago and Cheryl knew that Bobby had atoned for his sins thousand times over.
The Best News
And to everyone’s surprise, Cheryl’s idea worked. Her husband only spend a year in prison and all his other charges were dropped! Finally, Bobby was free in more than one way. He could finally be honest with his friends and family.
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And best of all, he truly realized that his and Cheryl’s connection was unbreakable. The couple are more in love than ever and Cheryl even jokes that she doesn’t know if they are ” the millers” or “the loves” – Bobby says Loves because they love!