Today is the forty-eight anniversary of my marriage. My wife and I are at the stage of our union where we are both retired and satisfied with our lives. I am, at least, and I believe she is also. That’s not to say that we’re content to sit on our duffs and let the world go by. We still have hopes and dreams that won’t come to pass by themselves.

She’s given me four beautiful children, who have graced us with grandchildren to love and spoil, a responsibility I took very seriously when they were young. Now that they’re no longer infants, it isn’t so easy to bribe them with treats and promises of new toys, but I try.

We live in sunny southern Alberta now, but the path that brought us here was circuitous, to say the least. We spent the first years of our marriage in Regina, Saskatchewan, but I’ve always had a bit of wanderlust. She followed me to Red Deer in the early eighties, and from there to Edmonton and then back to Regina, where we bought a house and put down roots, or so she thought. I worked in construction, but diabetes and age made it increasingly difficult to continue, so in 2013 we (I) sold the house and took her to the big island of Hawaii, where we started a business.

I have to give credit where credit is due. She didn’t want to live on an island in the Pacific Ocean, 3500 miles from her children, but she came with me. I sponsored her green card and thought we were set but, as usual, I was wrong. The business closed mid-2015, so we returned to Regina, but now without a pot to piddle in, or a window to throw it out of, if you’ll excuse my use of a rather crude adage.

Photo by Martin Zangerl on Unsplash

After a few more moves and a fortuitous investment, we purchased a home and settled in the beautiful city of Medicine Hat. Although it boasts fewer than seventy thousand residents, we don’t lack for services. Paved and gravel paths crisscross the city, and I walk them with my border collie almost every day. The people are super friendly and our church has a strong presence in the city.

All in all, we’re happy. The purpose of today’s post is not to brag, but to express my love and devotion to the woman who has stayed by my side since before our marriage. I’m nowhere close to perfect, but she overlooks my mistakes (more than a few of which are epic), and loves me for who I am, not who she thinks I should be. She isn’t shy about voicing her opinion on matters and I appreciate that. More than once, she has prevented me from making a complete fool of myself, a habit which shows no sign of abating anytime soon.

I’m looking forward to another twenty or thirty years of married bliss.

Image by autumnsgoddess0 from Pixabay

I love you, Debbie.