It Can't Be 38 Years!

I was 20 and she was a teenager when we met. We played Spades that night - she won. The next night, a Sunday, I invited her to a gathering at her parents house. It took a couple of years, but we married in 1969. She hitched her wagon to mine in a very real sense. She quit her schooling so we could finish mine. What we didn't fully understand was what a partnership it was to be. I would lead our family where she pointed us to go. My career would be our focus our project our frustration our joy, actually, our career. And that would be true through all the careers. Our house, and they have been many. Our girls, and they have been sweet blessings. Our friends, all of whose names she would patiently reminded me. Our family, never "my family vs your family." Our God - always with us and yet never near enough.

It can't be merely 38 years. It has to have been since we were babies. Surely we were born together. Surely there wasn't a time when I didn't have her at my side. If there were how did I make it? If there were from whence came my joy? If there were what gave me purpose?

It can't have already been thirty-eight years! We just met a short time ago. We're not old enough to have been together that long. 38-year marriages are for old people. Why, if you've been married that long then it's more than half over and that can't be. We've got too much to do. Places to go we haven't been. There's Egypt and Panama and Switzerland and China. Memories to make we haven't made. There's Samuel's graduation and Jeremiah's wedding. 38 years already - no, I don't believe it.

I asked her, the other day, to marry me. She said (as she always does ), "I can't. I'm already married." Now how sweet is that?!?! Then she started talking about how great her husband is. After hearing her describe him, I couldn't blame her for saying "No." I'm glad she has him. I hope she keeps turning me down and keeps him.

August 23, 1969 - an ordinary day to an uninformed world. The beginning of an extra ordinary adventure for this old man. I wish the whole thing - from then to now - had been video taped so I could watch it all again. In real time, no fast-forwarding, no muting - only pausing and, maybe a little re-winding and slow motion. Yeah! Slow motion, that would be good.

I love my wife.