We were married nine years ago. And my goodness, what a unbelievable nine years it has been!
Getting married in our 60s we knew that time is a funny thing. Suddenly you look and realize that ten or twenty years has past and you wonder where did the time go. So when we met and fell in love (virtually at the same moment) we vowed that we would make each day count. That every day would be a good day. And every day has been even better than “good."
Every day and night has been a day we took note of and have been able to say to each other in the evening: “This was a day worth living.”
Nine years ago today we were at Mom and Dad’s assisted living apartment in Mesa, Arizona. Mom zipped up my wedding dress, fastened a pearl necklace around my neck, and pinned flowers in my hair, Dad carefully pulled himself out of his wheelchair and walked walked me into their living room. When Dan saw me enter the room he glowed with happiness. I will never forget the look on his face.
Dad performed a very touching and lovely wedding ceremony. We had several telephone meetings with him because he wanted to make sure it was just right for us. Dan wanted him to include two stories from the Bible--the story of the Prodigal Son, and the story of Ruth and Naomi. Mom sang at our wedding.
Dan and I made promises to each other and we both have kept these promises.
Our romance and wedding was straight out of a fairy tale where “they lived happily ever after.” Of course, in the last nine years life has happened and we have had health issues, but we have each other and “we have lived happily ever after."
This year we are celebrating our anniversary in Mesa for the first time, back again where we were married nine years ago. The Springs, the assisted living residence where we were married, is across the street from the community where we live. And our home is in the same community where Mom and Dad lived for almost twenty years, the years before they moved to The Springs. Everyday we ride our bike by Mom and Dad’s home, and when we do we always say “Hi Mom, hi Dad,” and tell them any news we think they would be interested in.
Mom and Dad in front of the home where they lived in Leisure World. This is how we see them every morning as we cycle by the home they had owned and loved:
Today we went to The Springs, where we were married and said: “Hello and thank you and we love you Mom and Dad.“ We feel very close to them living in Leisure World in Mesa, and we love it here.
The Springs is where Mom and Dad waved goodbye from their balcony every time we left after a visit. And it was so hard to say goodbye that Dad inevitably said, “I wished you hadn’t come,” and we would all smile, but also cry because we knew what he meant.
Here is Mom waving goodbye to us from balcony at The Springs as we left Mesa in our truck and Chinook camper in April 2012 at the end of our first road trip. Life was off kilter as Dad had passed away, but Mom waved to us for both of them.
It was good to visit the Springs today, where we were married nine years ago and it is good to be living here, in Mesa, celebrating these wonderful nine years. This year we are celebrating our wedding, our marriage, our family, each other, and life. For the first time where we were married.
After our 2:30 am hour long bike ride (where we saw three skunks!) on our tandem, Daisy, and after a beautiful starlit hour and a half walk, we arrived home hungry but excited as we had a whole day stretching ahead of us for our anniversary celebration!
Dan always forgets that I cook bacon for him on special occasions. I was able to surprise him once again with a bacon, egg, and mashed potato breakfast in bed.
(side bar: Dan here. I don't ALWAYS forget. One time I remembered!......I think).
We exchanged anniversary cards, both giving each other vintage cards that are playful, tender, and loving.
Dan gave me a totally awesome cup coffee cup celebrating the life that we have created in all our years of camping and hiking and discovering such beauty together out in our grasslands and deserts.
I was able to find Dan a very special wine cup from Horse Heaven Hills....our favorite area on our favorite bike ride. It is in Eastern Washington, an area high on a plateau in farming and wine growing country. We cycle eight miles up Weber Canyon to reach this plateau.
It is hard cycling which make it even more rewarding and spectacular when we reach the top! One year we did this ride against a 25-mph headwind. It was grueling and wonderful!
Some of Dan’s favorite red wines are grown and bottled on the Horse Heaven Hills plateau.
The wine cups have wild horses embossed on them which I think is especially cool as I have loved everything about horses since I was a child and have owned one for 31 years during my life, up until I was 60 years old. Dan is a cowboy at heart and I am a cowgirl!
We had a surprise visit today on our anniversary.....for the very first time here at Nuestra Casa we saw our beloved Western Tanager. We had often enjoyed the brightly colored Western Tanagers at our Whidbey Island home. We believe Mr. Tanager came by to wish us a “Happy Anniversary!” Thank you.
We celebrated our years together with our traditional fondue dinner.
Dan gave me another gift straight from his heart.
We danced to our beautiful music in the activity room in our home, Nuestra Amarosa Casa. Dan put together a dance list of “our” songs, each of which has a special meaning and is part of our history together. I put on my red dress. The dress that I wore on the night that Dan asked me to marry him.
We had ice cream for desert...just like children, we ate to our heart’s content.
Dan and I have been keeping a diary our our life together and with our family......our blog. This year we decided to have our blog made into books so we could sit down together (like in the olden days before computers) and open a book to see and read about our life. Books that will include stories and pictures of wonderful events in our life, but even more importantly, they will also include small, seemingly unimportant everyday events and thoughts that are often forgotten as time goes on, as the years pass.
These books are our anniversary present to each other this year....our life. We have twelve books. Every year we will make a new book of our adventures, our family, our grandchildren, of us. These books are our treasured possessions because they are our memories, our history. When we are too old to go out in our beloved deserts to camp and hike and make new discoveries and have adventures, Dan and I will sit together and look through our books of our life and we will smile and laugh and we will cry. And we will dance together every year on our anniversary.
Tonight we will watch our favorite “happily ever after” movie....Brigadoon.
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