Romance IRL

Today is my wedding anniversary.

It’s been 43 years together with an amazing woman. As I went back through the last decade or so of tributes, it felt like I’d said everything there was to say. But it felt important to say something. If you’ve known me and the Lady in My Life for more than a little while, I can’t imagine any of what follows will come as a surprise. This is more for the new friends and acquaintances of the last couple decades.

So, here goes.

Forty-three years ago today, I married my college sweetheart. As a boyfriend, let’s call me a “project”. I had good moments, but there was some teenage boy stupidity at times. History says I did better as a fiance, and have performed at times with distinction as a husband.

I remember our first kiss, the first time we made love, the day I proposed, and the day we got married. We were two kids falling deeper and deeper in love.

That fall is still going on.

The day you get married is an important milestone day. But it’s the weight, length and breadth of all the other days that follow that matter. There were so many, many good days. There were our fair share of bad ones as well.

We made it through them all together.

I still smile when she walks into the room. There’s no more joyful sound in my universe than when I can make her laugh. I’m not sure, even after all these years, if she realizes how much she is the center of everything I do. As a creative, I’m always thinking about my audience. There’s only one person in the front-row, center seat of that audience.

It’s always her.

Forty-three years married. Forty-eight as a couple. That’s a long journey.

A journey that began today.

Love you, beautiful.