36 years

When I was 18 years old, living to be 50 seemed unreal, my parents were in their 50's and they seemed so old. Well guess what, I am 58 and today Rick and I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary. The day we married I truly had no thoughts about the future, I was a poster child for living in the moment. In some ways it seems we have always been together, and then there are moments when it seems as though we just met. The past few years I have had people ask how do you make a marriage last? I don't know. I think that living day by day has helped. Having common interests surely helps, being stubborn sometimes helps, and sometimes it hurts. Willing to compromise, willing to say I am sorry, willing to hang in there through sickness and in health, not walking out the door when you don't like each other, and having the sense to know that just because you don't like, doesn't mean you don't love.

Laughing a lot helps, being able to cry together helps too. Leaving was never an option, being pissed, being hurt, that happens, but you know that happens to every one. Some years went so fast it was like riding a carousel and others are like bits of fog, that hug the valleys but you found the sunshine around the curve and the happiness was surreal. We have lived life as full as we could most of the time, and then there were the dark days, when we buried a parent or a sibling and we had to pull each other out of the grips of grief. I can't imagine what the next 36 will be like, who knows what tomorrow will bring........I just know this, having a partner, knowing you are loved, it makes getting out of bed each day a little easier. (especially when the first one up makes the coffee)