Thirty-five years! (#1201)

Topics/tags: Autobiographical

Today is the 29th of August, 2022. It is also the thirty-fifth anniversary of Michelle and my wedding. I still can’t believe I convinced this amazing woman to marry me. I astounded that’s she’s put up with me for this long (and that she plans to put up with me even longer).

We’ve been through a lot together. Graduate school and medical school. The births of three sons [1]. The loss of three parents and countless other relatives. Sickness [2]. Health [3]. Amazing amounts of joy and happiness. Sadness, too. Moves [4]. Living apart. Living together. Living apart again. Pets. My inclinations to accumulate stuff. Her inclinations to discard stuff. Lots and lots of our kids’ activities: Sporting events, theatre, music, more. Together, we’ve managed it all.

Of all our accomplishments, together or apart, I’m proudest of our three sons. They are nice, thoughtful, inquisitive, grounded young men. I feel joy each time I see them. I wish our parents could be around to see them.

Michelle says we’ve made each other better. I agree. I wouldn’t have had the courage or inclination to make some of the choices I’ve made without her, and I believe her when she says that she wouldn’t have made choices without me. I think most of those choices were good ones. Perhaps all were.

When we said I do thirty-five years ago, would I have envisioned where we are now? No. Michelle says that she wouldn’t have either. To be honest, she raised the question first. I’m not sure that we thought much toward the future, except that we’d be married, we’d be together,and we would (hopefully) be pursuing some variant of the careers that we’re pursuing.

I still recall friends and family saying that we were too young to get married and that we should live together a bit first [5]. Whenever people suggested that, we asked whether they expected that we’d still be together in five years. They all said yes. And so we told them that we didn’t see any reason to wait. We made the right decision.

I don’t know that either of us will live another thirty-five years. If we both do, I’m confident we’ll still be together. She’ll probably still be frustrated with my tendency to hoard [6]. I’ll probably be frustrated about something, although I’m not sure what. But we’ll be together. I hope we’ll be near the kids [7]. And we’ll be having fun together, even if it’s just sitting side by side reading.

Happy anniversary Michelle! I love you lots and lots and even more!

[1] That last one was particularly scary.

[2] Some of it very scary.

[3] Lots, I think.

[4] Michelle says that we’ve moved the records for the last time. Now I need to figure out what to do with them.

[5] Note: That was my family, not hers.

[6] I may be, too. But it won’t stop me from hoarding.

[7] Maybe grandkids, too.

Version 1.0 of 2022-08-29.