Posted on 03/21/2009 3:26:35 AM PDT by Glenn
She's still upstairs asleep.
She was tossing and turning because I had stolen the covers yet again. (She's the one who programs the thermostat so it is five degrees colder at night.) I got up. It's a daily ritual.
The daughter she gave me is sleeping in the next room. She must have been awake earlier. I hear her CD player cranking out music that soothes her back to sleep. In a few years, I am going to despise her music. For now, I rather enjoy the songs of the children.
She had her hair colored for the first time a week or so ago. She had developed gray hair at her temples. Something a man desires. She had worn the gray for a couple of years. I'd sometimes tease her about it, as I tease her about many things. It's my way and always done with a smile and paid back with her fist to my arm. I remember those. She hardly wears perfume and one day when she did, I told her she smelled wonderful and asked her which magazine she'd torn it out of. She laughed until she collapsed on the couch in what seemed like agony. On my dark days, those days when I couldn't find a dig with a shovel, I could see it in her eyes. Never sadness from her. Sometimes a sharp edge. But I knew she always prayed for the best thing to come next.
She once buried a Saint upside down in the backyard of a house we were trying to sell after I'd relocated for a job. It sold sooner rather than later and I envied her strength and faith in the process. When I was suffering, all to young, from a series of heart ailments and surgeries, she prayed. And she barked. Stop smoking! You don't need anymore alcohol! Please put your clothes in the hamper! Did she pray for those things as well? I never ask. She tells me when she is praying for me or about me.
I am a homebody. Except for the occasional play, movie, musical or sporting event, I don't leave the house. I am a contented man. I have what I need inside the walls of this house. We do go out to dinner a couple of times a month. We watch cooking shows on television at night. We can both agree on them. She likes "Heroes". I like "Criminal Minds". Sometimes I will suffer through her program or she mine, but usually we settle on the Food Network. We're comfortable in that.
Now that I am mostly deaf, she tries very hard to make herself heard without screaming. That was quite an adjustment for her and it took a while. She'd say something and I'd say, "Sorry?", and she'd scream what she had said and my ear would hurt and I would say, "Not so loud!" as loudly as I could. It's been a tough five years on her. She watched me as I learned to walk again after losing an ear. She drove me everywhere without complaint. She's so tough. So very, very, tough. After the bypass, she made sure I followed instructions. She knows I would forget if she didn't.
She asks me in the morning if her combo of clothing looks okay and never ever flinches when I tell her she's gotten the shoes wrong again. She trusts me and I trust her. She keeps my best interests at heart and I do my best to keep hers. There are so many things we simply ignore about one another, though. Things, if they were bunches, that would drive other couples to ruin. They aren't worthy of wrecking a mood.
Tonight, my daughter has decided where we will go for our anniversary dinner. It's her present to us. She's our present to us. Mom is tough. She gives no quarter on manners and behavior. At the end of the day, they hug each other tightly and swear undying love. I see the way she loves me in the way she loves our daughter. I hope the rest of the people in the world work just this way.
17 years. Amazing. All those memories. All that happiness. Time keeping time over all of it. It's forever, though. It might end, but it will be there still.
That’s quite touching Glenn.
May you have years and years of continued happiness.
(P.S. My husband uses those earphone things to watch TV, now I don’t have to hear it on extra loud.)
Makes me wonder what I have missed.
Happy Anniversary.
That’s a fine piece of writing, Glenn — I’ve bookmarked for future reference.
I wish you and your wife all the happiness and joy that my wife and I have enjoyed these past... seventeen years!
(coincidence? Nah. And yet...)
You write really, really well.
Congratulations! This is the so called "secret" to a happy marriage (we're going on 30 years.) You nailed it!
Nicely done.
And as a person who is too often tempted to talk about the selfishness and lack of depth of todays youth, a fine rebuttal!
Boy, your little family sounds a lot like what mine use to be and it brings back a sweet sadness. At seventeen years, we had our Scottie, our only child. She was the center of our life. We were a threesome. We watched the food channel and stayed home most of the time. Scottie was active into everything, won awards. We were always there for her. We were a threesome. She pampaered us and we pamapered her and each other. That was ten years ago. Scottie graduated Magna cum laude, I cried. She got her first job and moved to an apartment one mile from home, I cried. She got married and went on a honeymoon, I cried.
My husband and I have each other but we were a threesome and there is a hole. Scottie’s married now with two little ones. She has a wonderful life...but we were a threesome.
**
Beautiful tribute to your bride and your relationship....here is too many more years of loud TV and thermostat battles....
Very nice, Glenn. Happy anniversary to you and your wife.
Thanks.
I envy all of you who achieve these years because I know that you have fought and earned them. I have seen so many friends forget what originally brought them together and then for a variety of reasons split into discouraged divorce.
Your description of the give and take makes my heart sigh and sing. May GOD Bless you even more in the coming years.
Congratulations! We just had our 38th. It gets even better.
What a beautiful tribute! Happy Anniversary!
Sounds like me, my beloved wife and I have been together almost 31 years. Our children are both grown and gone, and you are right, their absence does leave a hole in the family. I rememeber once mentioning to a friend that children are a gift from God. He said that he thought of them more as loaners, sooner or later we have to give them up. But oh the joy!
Happy Anniversary, Glenn, to you and your beautiful bride. My husband is taking me out tonight for our 18th, which is actually Monday, but he is going to be out of town. I have no idea what we are doing but I know he’s planned a lot for this one.
I can tell you from the other side of the coin, life is beautiful with the man God gives you for a husband. Mine was injured in Iraq six years ago and that altered our lives drastically. I never thought of walking away or wondering what if. He is my blessing given to me not once, but twice by a loving, faithful, giving God. I can tell you, she prays you for you without ceasing.
I pray you have another many, many beautiful years together. We watch woodworking shows together. Isn’t life funny?
Congratulations on the 17 years, and here's to many more for you and your wife.
My wife and I will celebrate our 43 anniversary on April 3rd. I recognized many of the circumstances and activities you described as occurring in our marriage as well.
Thanks again for the post. I will email it to my wife (yea, I know she is just in the other room, but she will enjoy reading it instead of just getting my verbal description of it).
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