Recently my mother and father celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary.  They are pictured at their wedding.  It's funny, I always kid my son that he thinks I was born old, but I was humbled looking at their wedding album--my parents looked so young.  When I mentioned this to my mother she said matter-of-factly, "But we were young." And doesn't my mother look beautiful?

Growing up, of course, I had no idea how lucky I was to have a good, stable, two-parent family.  My mother almost died twice when I was very young, once from cancer and once from a ruptured appendix.  Though she was always plagued with health problems to one degree or another, she was always there for me, which of course I did not fully appreciate at the time.

Nor did I appreciate my father's sacrifices, working long hours in order to provide for us and to make sure that my mother always had the medical attention she needed.  When I was a child, my father always had two pictures on his desk.  One was a picture of my little sister standing in front of the refrigerator.  The other one was of me.

My mother and father were fortunate, in that they certainly were meant for each other.  However, like most couples, they sometimes fought, yelled, and clashed. I am eternally grateful that they always worked out their problems, as opposed to giving up. They are now 80-years-old, but are both still very much in love.

After their anniversary party last year (for #45), I had to be careful when I put their reclining chairs back, because they need to be placed in such a way that they can hold hands while they watch TV together.

At the party I explained how when I was a teenager I told my dad that I thought he lived a pathetic existence and I did not understand why he had much will to live at all. My father would smile and say "I have a great life--someday you'll understand." At the party I explained that now my teenage son thinks that I live a pathetic existence and that I have no life. My son nodded in agreement.

There were many other couples at the party who raised children and had long, happy marriages.  My uncle Dave and my aunt Helen celebrate their 46th wedding anniversary in January.  My parents' friends Dave and Ute met when Dave was stationed in the Army in Germany in the 1950s and they have been together ever since.  Another couple there, Dick and Shirley,  had been married for 59 years.  Perhaps it is men and women like these who are the true heroes in our society.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 8:08 pm and is filed under Marriage, My Kids, My Family. You can trackback from your own site.