50 years together

It was my parents 50th wedding anniversary last week. Amazing! 50 years together. 50 years of love, bickering, anger, trust, and tears. I'm sure, hell, I KNOW there were times they were close to divorce, times they both wanted to say to hell with it. I'm not sure what held them together, was it love, was it stubbornness, were they too scared to split? But there they are. Still doing their imitation of the Bickersons ..... ok, you kids... go look it up. I'll wait.

They kvetch at each other, Dad mutters about "putting up with this for all these years"... Mom mutters about "needs a hearing aid... selfish.... " and its comforting! Because they have been doing this since I can remember. When I was little, it scared me. I was sure they were going to go off and divorce, and I'd be like my friends, living through that incredibly awful tearing apart of a family, watching your familiar life fall apart around you. Sometimes, when they weren't talking for days, I thought it would have been better if they had. But now, they have grown together, and one without the other is unthinkable.

So, Mom and Dad, Happy 50th. May you have many many more.