UPDATED: It Was 40 Years Ago Today

that Sgt. Pepper taught the band ... Oh, wait. Wrong subject.

May 31, 1980

This is a milestone year: I turned 65 earlier this month, today is our 40th anniversary, and my lovely thoughtful bride will be ... well, let's just say it ends with a zero, and call it good.

"Politics doesn't make strange bedfellows; marriage does." ~ Groucho Marx

We committed matrimony in 1980, on the first day of a heat wave that lasted until October. The underpowered air conditioning in the church struggled to cope, and almost did.

She was radiant in a lovely white gown, and I (for a reason known only to God) was in a winter-weight white tux with tails.

Our reception that evening was in the city auditorium - a stand-alone gymnasium. And as is typical with a hot, muggy day in the Midwest, the evening was interrupted several times by power outages from the raging thunderstorm outside. The band, however, was quite good; they would wait for the power to come back up, and then kept on playing without missing a beat.

At one point, my new brother-in-law was so hot that he went out and just stood in the rain for awhile. When he came back in, he looked just as wet, but felt cooler. Meanwhile, my winter-weight tux was hot and equally sodden, although I'd long since shed the jacket.

My maternal grandmother was there, and danced several of us young bucks into the floor. I was strong as an ox in those days, a warehouse worker lifting 120-pound parcels all day. The others were mostly firefighters, and she outlasted all of us. She's been gone for more than 35 years, but that memory will be with me until I'm gone, too.

There have been ups and downs, heartache, occasional pain, and many, many happy and glorious times. We've experienced the "for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health", just like everyone else.

I was madly in love with her then, and am deeply in love with her now. She's my best friend, confidant, companion, and mother of my children. I cannot imagine life without her. She's a quiet woman, but a woman of deep feelings and surprising wit (at least for those who don't know her well).  She's strong, independent and capable - and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I am truly a blessed man.