Anniversary Thoughts, April 2010

Thirty-five years ago I married at age 23, on April 26, 1975. The wedding was a small affair in a stone chapel overlooking a lake in northern Indiana. I wore a long dress of peach-colored gauze I sewed myself, and Dennis wore an ivory-colored brocade Nehru jacket, in true 70’s style. We said our Self Realization Fellowship–inspired vows to each other out of the silence of a Quaker Meeting-like service. Relatives and a few college friends bore witness. We ate home-made carrot cake to celebrate.

How can you know at age 23 what the vows and commitment to that one person will bring to your life?

Thirty-two years ago I gave birth to my first child, eighteen years ago to my third, with another in-between. Thirty-two years of parenting, with one more year to go before the nest is empty.

Thirteen years ago, my only daughter, the first child born thirty-two years ago, was killed in a car accident. My mother passed away just three years later.

Ten years ago I finished writing the first draft of a book. To celebrate our 25th anniversary, we took a trip to Europe to visit our son Kevin, the middle child, on a farm in Germany.

Kevin is now married. And I am now about to publish that book.

Laughing in a Waterfall: A Mother’s Memoir tells the story of the most traumatic three years of my life, the part that I never could have imagined when I married thirty-five years ago. But then again, at 23, I never could have imagined I would write a book either.

Dennis and I bear witness to each other and who we’ve become in this marriage and wonder, “What more is in store for us?” Whatever it is, we’re in it together.

And so we eat home-made rhubarb cake to celebrate.

Come to my book launch party and read my book when it comes out in June and be welcomed into our community-of-life. You all bear witness, dear friends.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 6:16 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.