30 Years

 30 YEARS!  My husband and I are celebrating our 30th anniversary today. 30 years of wedded bliss - well, not always bliss. 

We met at my grandpa's house when he came to visit my brother. (They had served time together in jail as he was struggling to pay his child support.) He says he knew he would marry me as soon as he seen me, but I can't say that it was love at first sight. We joke that I was at the table eating and when he walked up, I just said, "what do you want" and "he is not here" when he asked to speak with my brother, without even looking up from my plate. I say, " I believe it- I like to eat". Whether that happened or not, I don't remember. 

We really only dated two months before we got married, but we had talked and spent time together for almost 2 years. I was a single mom, and he had previously been married and had a son that was just three months older than my daughter. He was great with my daughter, and she is so much like him. He was just someone that was fun to be with and shared so many of the same life goals that I had. 

We were planning a church wedding, but when we went to get our marriage license, many issues came up. We finally got the license, and I said, " I want to get married now." He said something about it was almost 5 p.m. and we could not get anyone to marry us at that time. I called a gentleman that I knew that was a minister and asked if he could meet us later to marry us at the nursing home where my grandma was. The weather was awful outside- we had snow, ice, sleet, and very cold temperatures. Once he agreed, the wedding was on. We called his parents and told them to meet us in an hour, woke my mom (who worked night shift) and told her to get ready if she wanted to see us get married. We took my grandpa, mom and my daughter to the nursing home and got married outside of my grandma's door so that she could be with us from her wheelchair. My brother and his wife were there as well as the minister and his wife. 

I wore a teal dress (which had been a bridesmaids' dress for my friends' wedding in October of the previous year), and my husband wore jeans or black pants. My daughter wore the flower girl dress she had worn for my friends' wedding, and we were married. Once married, we went to dinner at a local steakhouse, then home. It was lovely and we were surrounded by the ones that loved us the most. 

We took a trip the next weekend or two for a small honeymoon just a few miles south and enjoyed a weekend away. Nothing special, but plenty of memories. Many anniversaries following that were spent going away for the weekend. Recently, we have not done that as much, but for this year we planned to take a weekend away. The weather is not cooperating, but what did I expect when I got married in the midst of a winter storm?

Little did we know that 28 years later, the little girl that witnessed us get married would be having her own wedding and we would be the longest married couple!

30 years and we have grown a lot since that day we first met, but we have stuck it out through the bad times, celebrated the good times, and always know that we had each other NO matter what life tossed our way! Now we are grandparents of 3 and have 3 new grands coming in the next few months. Here is to another 30 years!