Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my parent's 36th anniversary. In a world where more than 50% of all marriages end in divorce and celebrities can't seem to stay married more than a year - it's so encouraging to see my parents married for almost 4 decades and still very much in love. I've always said it took me 30 years to get married because I wanted to find what my parents had and wasn't going to settle for less. They have set a very good example for me of how wonderful marriage can be if God is in the center. I can say the same for Scott's parents too. We are very fortunate to have such good role models.
One of the best examples of a good marriage was my grandparent's marriage. I still think back to a few years before my pap-pa died and he was in the hospital and he was so sad because he was away from "his lifelong sweetheart" and he would talk about how much he loved mam-ma with tears in his eyes. They met before World War 2 and Mam-Ma said she didn't want to marry pap-pa like so many other girls who were marrying guys who went off to war so they could get money from the government. She wanted people to know she was waiting to marry pap-pa for love. And he got captured and was in a German prison camp for FOUR years. And this was in an age where you couldn't talk to your soldier by e-mail or cell phone ......you might get telegraphs if you were lucky and even then they usually didn't have a lot of information. For FOUR years my mam-ma waited for him to come home and worked and got a house ready and for four years my pap-pa carried her picture in his pocket (which he still had with him in the hospital). And they finally were able to marry and were married close to 60 years when my pap-pa died. Now that is true love. I knew that I wouldn't marry till I found THAT kind of love.
That's the legacy I was born into and I hope to carry it on to my children.
Happy anniversary mom and dad! I love you!

4 comments:

Laurie said...

Great story! Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Kelly for your wonderful words about us. That is the greatest gift we could ever receive! You and Scott make us so proud! That picture was made before we got married....I was the maid of honor at my sister's wedding and your dad was getting ready to leave for army duty! Boy, were we young and thin!! har
We love you, MOM AND DAD

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary to your parents--they are SOOO special to me! And what a neat story about your grandparents--thanks for sharing that, too. --Jamie

Jill said...

What a legacy!! Thanks for sharing such a wonderful piece of your family heritage! Jill Brannon