Forty-five Years

Our 45th wedding anniversary will be on the 23rd of this month. I sat here thinking about it and was lost in "remembering" land for awhile.

There were so many things we were planning on doing and so many places we were planning on visiting. We were planning on building a beautiful house on top of the hill and we still have the building plans for it, rolled up and in a tube in the closet. Never happened. We were going to trade our car in every three years and get a new one. That certainly never happened. We were going to have three or four children. Almost never happened - we had two, not three or four.

At one time, we were planning on moving out west. Not all the way to California, but west of here. Then we started thinking of our parents and it never happened. It wasn't "apron strings" keeping us here, it was "heart strings".

Our parents are gone. We could go now, if we wanted to, but that hasn't crossed our minds in years. Our children left home about 20 years ago, but there are three wonderful grandchildren to keep us busy. I gladly tied the "heart strings" tightly to myself.

I don't regret anything we've done or haven't done. What didn't happen was replaced with what happened. Life happened. We raised our daughter and son, saw them through school, through college and into their jobs. We saw them have their own families and we feel blessed to have seen it.

Sometimes I can't remember what exactly we were dreaming about. House? Cars? Vacations? Babies? Now that we're "grown", I'm just glad that we are healthy and can pay our bills. Our children are able to earn their living, they're healthy and happy and their children are healthy and happy.

We've been with each other longer than we were with our parents. I remember how it was both exciting and scary to be on our own. Little by little we gained confidence and now it's all old hat. Life is still happening, though, and I'm all for it.