Long Relationships

By Barbara Waters of Knitting Passions

JM has asked me to share just how two people can/could/have been married for as long as my husband and I have.

Whew! Tall order. It has taken me a bit to gather my thoughts in order to write this. You see, on any given day, either hubby or I might be willing to toss in the towel on our relationship. There are THOSE days when one or the other of us has just really had it up to HERE . . . and, given the right moment, or right suggestion, might just say “I am so outta here.”

And yet, there IS something still that keeps us together.

Hubby and I met while we were sophomores – in different schools. His best friend was dating my best friend and they decided we should meet. His buddy said “let’s go to a football game with R and B.” She told me it was a blind date with R’s buddy A. You can imagine where this might be going, right?

We met at R’s house, were driven by his dad to their high school for the game. All during the game I wondered why A was not paying any attention to me – and I was getting just a bit peeved and hurt. It didn’t help that as we walked from the field afterwards I tripped in a gopher hole and he laughed (!) and didn’t even wait to help me up.

I did NOT want to see him again. (I think the feeling was mutual)

Fast forward several months and the four of us double dated (this time it was called a date by all four) to the museum on the local university campus. There was an Egyptian display complete with mummy. I got my first ever kiss behind the mummy. Last year hubby and I took our oldest granddaughter to see that mummy and she insisted we reenact the kiss for posterity. (and pictures)

We became engaged after graduation. Eleven months later we were married.

That was 1969. Yes, we were babies - and the pictures show that.

Over the past forty years we have had our ups and downs – we’ve fought and made up – we’ve grown together and grown apart and grown together again.

There have been several life changes, physical changes, and family changes. We moved thousands of miles away from “home” (Ohio) to HOME (Alaska) to make a better life for out daughters.

And, through all of those . . . there have been those days when all was right in the relationship and those days when it was throw in the towel time. We’ve faced them all with humor and sensitivity, although not always both of us at the same time.

We tell each other and our friends that the secret of being married forty years is simply, lying down together each night and getting up together each morning. Sometimes it really is as simple as that.