Setting the record somewhat straight

It is true that the last decade and more of our marriage has been my favorite time, my favorite marriage. But all our marriages have had their magic. Especially the two marriages with the kids. Josh and Mimi are remarkable human beings and it was a joy to know them as they grew. I'm not sure how much we had to do with it, but they turned out amazing!

Whenever I think of them, I feel blessed. It was the normal issues of growing up with them--lack of self-confidence, trying to fit in, rebellion, all that. But being with them as adults: Josh will turn 39 this year and Mimi 36--has made all the angst and worry and confusion worth while.

Josh and his wife, Cathy Chen, have given us three remarkable granddaughters: Emma and Morgan, 7, and Tegan 4. They all live in Baltimore where Josh is a lawyer with a high-powered firm and Cathy is a lawyer for The House of Ruth and defends people who have been abused.

Mimi lives in Brooklyn and will be married in October to Tim McCarthy. They've been a couple for 12 years, so they know what they're getting into. Mimi just started a new Job as Development Officer for Jacob's Pillow. If you don't know about it, google it and watch the award winning documentary. Tim works for Linked In and does whatever it is he does.

Come October, I'll have be the celebrant at the marriage of both my children. (I would have rather walked Mimi down the aisle but I'm not sure that would have happened in their post modern service.)
And I've baptized each of my granddaughters.

That's pretty neat. And Bern's and my marriage when we were centered around Josh and Mimi growing up in Charleston, WV, New Haven and Cheshire was wondrous.

Mimi once commented on how, when she's here, she can't avoid her younger selves. There are so many photos on our walls of them growing up it's kind of ridiculous. But I walk through this house, where I've lived longer than any other place, and I see them growing and I remember the wonder and the pain of their growing.

So, even though this marriage--the empty nest one--is my favorite, the marriages with the kids had it's own magic and it's own disruption and it's own wonder.

Just wanted to make it clear that 'getting rid of the kids' isn't what makes this last marriage the best. That marriage, broken up as it was, is what makes this one so special. We walk through our house and are constantly reminded of the frustrating but incredible privilege it was to share a good part of our lives with those two marvelous creatures that were once our little children. I don't know how we made it through all that, and I know it turned out better than Bern and my skills and knowledge could have made it.

Josh and Mimi, Lordy, lordy, what a long strange trip it's been....

I love them more than they know...probably more than they can know....