AND STILL STANDING TOGETHER

Here I am, 49 years later after a trip down the aisle! I am still alive and breathing even if I am 75-years old in a few weeks.

In those 49 years I have lived with TLW, (The Little Woman) we have shared everything, money, home, cars, and love. It started with love and then she took everything else I own.

Someone at a wedding asked me what the secret of a long marriage was when they discovered we were the longest-married couple on the dance floor; the answer is simple, I keep my mouth shut. Early on in our marriage, I got that advice, and it is right, from my wife. She said: “Shut up!”

I love being married because I get to share not only the good times but the miserable ones, too. No matter how terrible things might seem, knowing your backup is standing next to you is a God-given gift, one that I cherish. We both enjoy being given children and grandchildren, and what joy grandchildren are! Our Darby Shea and Robert Courtney are true ‘Grand’ in all aspects of our lives. I can sit for hours just watching them do the things they do on videos and photos, and the wonder of Face time is sparkling.

Putting all that aside, there is a special time when ‘La Vita e Bella” and that is when we are alone, just two old people married a long time sitting, talking, eating, and watching TV together. When I married Ellen so long ago I pictured life with us being together and nothing else would be in the way. Of course, when you have children that don’t happen, especially after 9 months of marriage. Suddenly your attention, responsibility, and most importantly, love, are shared. It is beautiful, it is life, and it is what you want. Then one day after 4 children, there is an empty house, just the two of us once again, just as I imagined it, and I find the love connection adds another coupler, to reinforce what already is. It is our time, our reward for all we have gone through. Losing a child to death, to disabilities and emotional crises would kill most marriages, but I was lucky, she didn’t cut and run, she gave more than I did for all that.

Sitting in my chair during this pandemic one day I thought about the coming anniversary and realized something very important to our marriage, she took my last name as her own. She honored me and not only gave me that, but gave me 4 children whom I love dearly, and most of all her love.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, SWEETHEART, I LOVE YOU BACK.