My parents have been married for twenty seven years today - together for thirty seven.
Thirty seven years, people.
I think they have a wonderful marriage (see the Brady Bunch entry... not a whole lot of conflict in my household growing up). They are great partners. My mom cooks, my dad cleans the kitchen. My dad goes to work, my mom works on us. My mom writes the Christmas cards, my dad acts as a cab service. They seem to make each other laugh every single day.
I appreciate both the funny and sentimental together - very likely because my dad loves the wordy, bittersweet thought and my mom prefers the short, irreverent quip. I know, right? We don't abide by gender stereotypes in my family.
Here are two of my favorite quotes on marriage, in honor of the Beckers...
To keep your marriage brimming
with love in the wedding cup,
whenever you're wrong, admit it,
whenever you're right, shut up.
-Ogden Nash
Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part, because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being “in love” which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two. - Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
And a toast to their health and happiness for the next 27 37 years...
Here's to you both, a beautiful pair
On the birthday of your love affair
Here's to the husband and here's to the wife
May yourselves be lovers for the rest of your life.
-Irish blessing
North Allegheny Junior Prom, 1975 Personal photo, posted without their permission but in their honor!