45 Years Together

July 3rd, a date that we have shared 45 times of our lives together. I am a blessed man.

We are asked time and again, how do you make your marriage good enough to last so long? Of course, we come from several generations that knew how to stay together and went through world wars, depression and the explosion of technical growth that included the Telephone, Automobile, and Air Conditioning. The computer age exploded, and, just the population explosion, it has changed everything about how we live and operate!

So. It even happened this week. How do you make your marriage last? We give varied answers, like:

• Marry your friend, and stay friends through every challenge!
• Fighting and yelling is not our friend (or some words to this effect)
• We are a team.

But the real answer is our center and focus is each other, and the home we have created. There have been good times, and not so good times, but our home is our safety net, retreat, and hideaway. We protect our home base and all that it represents. It’s not always pretty, nor is it perfect, but it is that security we have of knowing that it’s where we spend most of our time. So make it a safe place.

We did not go through “pre-marital” counseling, or take classes on how to be successful, it came as we grew up together. She was 18. I was 19. We were married nearly 5 years before we had kids, and by then, life was set! Success was apparent.

At our wedding, in my wife’s aunt home, my sister played the piano, my brother and sister-in-law stood in as “best”, and my dad sang.

The Wedding Song (There Is Love)
©1971 Public Domain Foundation

I am now to be among you at the calling of your hearts
Rest assured this troubadour is acting on My part.
The union of your spirits, here, has caused Me to remain
For whenever two or more of you are gathered in My name
There am I, there is Love.

A man shall leave his mother and a woman leave her home
And they shall travel on to where the two shall be as one.
As it was in the beginning is now and til the end
Woman draws her life from man and gives it back again.
And there is Love, there is Love.

Well then what’s to be the reason for becoming man and wife?
Is it love that brings you here or love that brings you life?
And if loving is the answer, then who’s the giving for?
Do you believe in something that you’ve never seen before?
Oh there is Love, there is Love.

Oh the marriage of your spirits here has caused Me to remain
For whenever two or more of you are gathered in My name
There am I, there is Love. 

Noel Paul Stokey [Source]

I am thankful for my bride and her commitment, love, and friendship… I am thankful for family and friends that celebrated with us then, and every year since. We’re headed northward for another 45 years… Well, our plan is to make it through 65 because that’s the example we have seen from those generations that lead the way!