Ten years

 

 

That’s a long time to get to be married.

 

Today, Judy and I have now been married that long, ten years, on top of the fifty years we were already.  We have been celebrating being “Golden”, being married for 50 years, all this time.  Fifty was such a big milestone.  It seems like 60 came so fast!  We could be “Diamond” now, but Golden feels so warm and familiar, we’ll just continue to celebrate that each day.  We considered a fine dinner at an expensive restaurant to celebrate this occasion.  We settled on just the two of us, at Brazos Bend State Park (with steak and lobster on a grill, and a champagne toast). 

 

Our thoughts are all over the place, marveling at the transition sixty years ago, from being apart for so long, then suddenly back together every minute of every day.  Quiet.  Pensive.  Sharing.  Me returning from two years isolation overseas, and within hours back to the familiar embrace of family, friends, the neighborhood, and Judy.  For her, that long lonesome wait, everything the same for her only different, wondering what I was going through, and would everything be okay when I got back.  We reunited and the years apart melted in a moment, the memory of them a reminder to cherish what we have in the present.

 

“Until we’re old and eighty.”  We’ve achieved that.  Now we’re “Old and eighty.  And beyond.”