Dear Eddie,
Here we go again, planning another gathering at our home. This time, it is to celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary. The wedding planning website where the invitation is posted is counting. Every time I open the site, it tells me how many more days until the party. The site is counting down to the Big Day.
I remember counting down to our wedding day. There was the previous Summer, waiting for the engagement ring to come from the mail order house that your brother, Joe, and his best friend, Larry, had used for the diamonds for Mary Ellen and Lewie. There was a dress to be bought and bridesmaid dresses to choose.
That Spring, there were showers for kitchen and home; there were blood tests and licenses from the right county. There was the upstairs apartment in the Grayling house to paint. And, for you and for me, there were final exams and graduation at Alma College and being accepted into graduate school. So, we walked for graduation with our family in attendance, you said, “See you Friday,” and we were counted down to the Big Day.
That counting was over on the first day of Summer, June 21, 1969. We had arrived. We were finally married. We were our own twosome. We got there. And, we were off to our future together.
As we prepare for this celebration, I am very aware that we are counting, but I am not counting down. I am counting up. I am so very grateful that we are able to reach this occasion. We have so many friends who have not had the opportunity. I am enjoying the projects of preparing our home, inviting our loved ones, and getting ready. I am enjoying the play of remembering and planning. I am counting up these days as cherished.
I want you to know that I will be counting up every day we are given. Our grandkids link their playlists to our car stereos. There are lyrics I could do without for sure, but a lyric I really like says, “I like me better when I’m with you.” I really like you, and I really like me when I am with you. Our dads barely made 70. Both pairs of our parents were excellent couples who enjoyed life with their life mates. It was a shame that our moms and dads did not get more years to enjoy life together. Every day can be cherished, whatever it brings.
I will take every day we are allowed together. I will count up those days with you as the very best I can imagine. I love you. Happy Anniversary, darling.
Sylvia