50TH

Today, Glenda and I would have celebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary. Sadly, she didn't live to celebrate it. Back in August of 2025 I wrote about what finding myself alone felt like. Since that time I've had to pull myself up out of the recliner, and find my way without her. I've done it with a lot of help from friends, family, and faith in Christ. This year, I'm not going to have a pity party, but I'm going to celebrate her memory in the way we always celebrated our anniversaries. Glenda was not the romantic one in our marriage, and she would tell you that. She left it up to me to pick the way we would celebrate, the where, and inevitably pay for it. Her rules were simple; if it was a hotel, it must be a NICE one, with a whirlpool hot tub. If it was only a night out, it had to be out of town, and a SWANKY place. We both had to dress up, and we had to have a picture taken. She never thought she was pretty, so after about two or three years, the picture taking disappeared. After that it was usually just a picture of our hands clasped across the table with our rings very visible. I never asked her why that was important, but it was. My rules were very simple, our anniversary was to be without the kids. It would be a celebration of the union that produced the kids. My only other rule was that we wouldn't talk about anything else other than what we were happy about. Our anniversary MUST be celebrated on the day of, if we couldn't, we didn't. Over the years, we only missed three anniveraries due to circumstances beyond our control. If I were asked to name my favorite anniversary, it would be our thirteenth. I was stationed in Las Vegas, and we spent an entire weekend at the Tropicana hotel. It was the honeymoon we never had. I don't know what was her favorite, but I would hope that the Vegas anniversary would be her's too. Of course our marriage was more than the anniversaries. it was forty seven years of love, joy, triumphs, achievements, laughter, and grace. No, it wasn't a fairy tale romance where we stared longingly into each other's eyes. It was struggles, disagreements, sacrifices, intense discussions, comprimises, and submission to one another. Still no matter what, divorce was out of the question. We'd both agreed at the very beginning that neither one of us would say the word. In today's world of individualism, young people don't seem to revere marriage, and it's vows aren't appreciated as they once were. For us, that wasn't the case. The words were more binding than the lip service given to them. I meant them when I said them, and she emphatically meant them, when she said them. Both of our families gave us a snowballs chance in hell of making it one year. I like to think that today, on what would be our fiftieth, we would be giving them a raspberry. Glenda, if fate had not intervened, I would have taken you to Gaston's on the White River, rented a cabin, and we'd have simply enjoyed the view, and the food. Happy Anniversay my love.