Still crazy after all these (28) years

By Saturday afternoon, Bill and I will have reached another milestone on our trip together through life–28 years of marriage.  It’s been quite a ride!

We met in a little roadhouse after a rugby game, me seated at probably the only table with an open seat, he both hands filled with burgers, tired, sweaty and needing to sit down.  We ended talking about books, he about sci-fi, me about non-sci-fi (and so it somewhat remains, as those of you who are Friday Fictioneers might already realize, he being the creator of the zombie Zeds, me the mostly upbeat one.)

We survived the aftermath of difficult prior relationships, of each meeting the family of the other, the “On sale” sticker on the bottom of his shoe that was on view during the wedding (not difficult to survive at all and a hilarious start to our marriage), learning about all the ways we were different (quite a few) and realizing that most of them added spice to life (and the rest need to be overlooked), and a host of small and not-so-small things that might have derailed us, had we not been committed to making our marriage work.

We both survived and loved having (and home schooling) two daughter who are now well on their way to being beautiful, talented and unique women.  We survived me teaching him to ride horses in the mountains of Wyoming.  We survived and loved family vacations every year, changes in jobs, changes in churches, living apart  (for work and logical reasons but with one of us moved six hours away for too many years), changes in friends and losses of family members.  We even survived Nebraska joining the Big 10, which brought about the dreaded situation once posited by our younger daughter when she was little:  “Mom, if Nebraska played Ohio State, what would happen?”  Answer:  “I’d root for Nebraska; Dad would root for Ohio State.”  They did and we did and we are yet married!  🙂

We survived and thrived.

We survived cancer.

And we’ve survived much longer than many marriages in our country have survived.  For that I’m truly thankful.  On this day of our 28th anniversary ( Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012), I want to give a shout out to my husband, Bill, creator of the Zeds, a person who still, after all these years, couldn’t in some ways be more different than I am and who couldn’t, in the ways that count, be closer to my heart and integral to my life.  Thanks for 28 (mostly) wonderful years.  Despite any poems from my past about love and loss, what I have with you is the real deal and I pray for and look forward to many, many more years of laughter, craziness and love.

Oh yes…and of Nebraska defeating Ohio State!