You might have heard the old adage, “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,” but Rebecca Walker Yount has lived it.

The Butler native has written a book, “Love Worth Waiting For,” chronicling her fairy-tale wedding, and later, the unimaginable pain of losing her husband after only two short years of marriage.

Born and raised in Butler, Yount is the daughter of Robert and Kathleen Walker.

She graduated from Calvary Academy in 1985 and, with the exception of her college years at Massillion Baptist College in Massillion, Ohio, and a year of graduate school at Pensacola Christian College in Pensacola, Fla., she has lived in Butler her entire life.

She taught third and fourth grades at Calvary Academy from 1991 to 2014.

During this time, Yount had, by the age of 43, given up on the idea of getting married. That is, until her parents arranged a blind date with Matthew, who sang in church with friends of Yount’s parents.

Yount writes that she wasn’t expecting much from her blind date, which took place in October 2010.

“In fact, the older I became, the more depressing a blind date could be,” she wrote. “If a man anywhere near my own age had not yet married, within moments after meeting, it was normally very obvious why he hadn’t.”

Despite worrying that he was bald or tipping the scales at 400 pounds, Yount went through with the arranged date and was pleasantly surprised by the very tall and not at all bald Matthew.

The supervisor for U.S. Steel had a serious manner that hid a dry wit, Yount wrote. They both were dedicated churchgoers. By January 2011, she decided he was a keeper. And by April 2011, Matthew was sending roses to her classroom. On April 9, he proposed.

On Aug. 12, 2011, the two were married at her church, Calvary Baptist using the theme “Dreams Do Come True.”

The two had been warned that once the glow of the nuptials faded, they could expect to have one if not more knock-down, drag-out fights, but they never occurred.

Instead, Yount writes: “To be honest, I always thought that marriage could be good, but I never expected it to be great.” Yount said there were fights, but because they were both good communicators, both were willing to compromise.

Doing almost everything together and their shared faith also helped reinforce their married relationship, Yount said.

Unfortunately, as Yount writes, their marriage was not destined to be a long one.

On Jan. 28, 2014, Yount said, “He came home from work especially stressed about the workday but otherwise everything was fine, he was acting himself. He canceled his bagpipe lessons that night. He said, ‘I’m going to hang with you.’”

After going to bed, she said, she got up around 1:30 a.m. and reminded Matthew to put on the mask to the CPAP machine he used to treat his sleep apnea, and they both went back to sleep.

An hour later, Yount writes “I awoke noticing that the sound under Matthew’s mask had changed. I could no longer hear the sound of his breathing.”

Despite CPR efforts by Yount under the direction of the 911 operator, then paramedics and then the emergency room staff, Matthew never woke.

Yount said an autopsy revealed he didn’t have a heart attack. His heart simply stopped.

“I did not cope well,” Yount said in the aftermath of her husband’s death. “At first I didn’t want to live anymore.”

She credits her faith for helping her, as well as writing the book, which took her five years to complete.

“I wanted to write it to help others,” she said. “The way we were, something special was there. ”

“Love Worth Waiting For” was published by Christian Faith Publishing, which Yount described as a hybrid self-publisher.

The book is available on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites, she said. In addition, she will conduct a book-signing from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 25, at Vintage Coffee House, 209 S. Main St.

Yount’s life continued to change after Matthew’s death.

First she left teaching in 2014.

“I wanted to grow old teaching,” she said. “It was such a small school, and it had gotten smaller. Christian schools can’t pay very much.”

She reluctantly left Calvary Academy and started working for a retailer at Clearview Mall selling diamonds on commission.

“After six years, I wanted something new. My mom knew I was looking and gave me the want ads one day,” Yount said. She began working at the Butler Eagle as a classified and legal line-ad representative.

She wrote and published her book, she said, because she wanted her eight nieces and nephews to know the uncle they won’t remember much about.

“We were married for two years and five months,” Yount said. “He was worth every year I waited and every year he was in my life.”