51 and counting

 Tomorrow is Bern's and my 51st Anniversary.

She was 20 and I was 23--we had no idea what we were getting into and for how long.

I was a Senior in high school and she was a freshman.

We met in Latin class.

Amo, Amas, Amat.

I owe our marriage our two children and four granddaughters to Shimmer College.

Shimmer was a 'great books' school in the mid-west and I thought I wanted to go there.

Shimmer required a year of foreign language, so I took the Latin class (having avoided languages until then).

And there we met. Five years later we were married and moved to Cambridge, MA for my second year of Harvard Divinity School.

She went to college in Boston for that year then we moved back to Morgantown so she could finish her degree.

We lived in a trailer and were on food stamps since my promised job as a school teacher fell through once they saw my long hair and beard at the Board of Education.

There were other bumps along the road, without question.

But we bumped through them all, even a six month separation in New Haven.

And here we are, over half-a-century of our lives later.

68,5% of my life I've been married to her.

And I am so full of joy for all we've meant to each other.

Happy Anniversary and so much more, my love....