43 YEARS AND COUNTING

It seems like yesterday when I proposed to TLW (The Little Woman). It was in the front seat of my brand new Camaro, flush with money from a great professional job I started and feeling no pain. It was also the day after Thanksgiving and I introduced her to the family, to get a feel of how well she would fit in. I was about to leave the house, looking for an apartment months before when we met on the train on our way to work.

Since then we have done a lot together, raising children and marrying one off, burying one and sending one to live in a special home for her own happiness. To say there were tears is to understate the facts and deny the past. Having someone to hold onto when the road is slippery helps.

Today it is 43 years ago that I walked the final mile of bachelorhood, and standing finally in the church where I vowed I would never go, surrendered meekly.

So what has happened? I look around and see that I retired officially years ago! What’s going on? It seems that life is but a short story with many characters and many events, that won’t stop when I go just as they ran along when I came into this world. All the children are grown and now it is TLW and I.

AFTER THE WEDDING, I DROVE HER OLD CHEVY BISCAYNE

All the world is indeed a stage, and I have a few regrets but too many joys to even begin to elaborate on, I enjoy life for what it is, I learned long ago you need only to like yourself, and whole world is likeable with few exceptions.

Sharing it with a lifetime partner who made life not only comfortable, but beautiful, is all I ever wanted, and all I ever got!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SWEETIE.