45

I always loved that we chose the first day of spring!

Of course, in the deep south where we fell in love,

spring had been sprung weeks earlier,

but still, the "new beginning" appealed to me.

 

It wasn't our first date choice.

Originally, it was to be a week later

which, as it turned out,

was the day years later

that my mother and his brother died.

I was so glad we changed it!

 

This is the 45th.

How is that even possible?

I was 18 when we married,

I don't feel much older than that now.

We shared 36.

Just six weeks short of our 37th,

he went Home.

So today, I commemorate alone.

 

We used to look forward to our 50^th.

We deserved it, we said!

We were 18 and 20 when we said “I do”,

so young and inexperienced!

And we both came from homes

that did not model excellence in marriage.

And we were very different personalities.

So we worked hard and we learned.

And we made a good marriage

between two people who loved each other deeply,

wanted to be together more than they wanted to be “right”,

and were passionate about marriage in general

and marriage to each other in particular.

 

We’d had crushes.

But I was the only woman he ever loved,

and he was the only man I’d ever loved.

Sometimes I miss that.

 

We weren’t perfect,

far from it!

To be honest, we weren’t even well suited to one another.

Maybe we “shouldn’t” have married.

But I’m so, so, so very glad we did!

 

 

Put me like a seal on your heart,
    like a seal on your arm.
Love is as strong as death;
    jealousy is as strong as the grave.
Love bursts into flames
    and burns like a hot fire.
Even much water cannot put out the flame of love;
    floods cannot drown love.
If a man offered everything in his house for love,
    people would totally reject it.

 

~~ Song of Solomon 8:6-7 ~~