11-11-11

11-11-11.  A memorable date in our history but also a very memorable one in my life.  It is Veteran's Day and I thank all the veteran's in this nation for their service and dedication.  But it is also the anniversary of the day I married my husband.

He was in the Navy and it just happened that he got a leave during this time and the 11th happened to fall on a Saturday in 1961.  Since he had just returned from a 10 month cruise to the east and would be making another long one, we decided we were going to be married.  We really didn't think too much about it being Veteran's Day until later.

We first met in 1957 and dated off and on for over a year.  Of course, I was only 14 1/2 when we met so was pretty young to his 16, almost 17 years, but we dated and we got pretty serious.  Maybe that is why we broke up as we both were too young to make that big commitment.  My family moved from the area in 1959 and I lost track of him.  

I went to visit my aunt and uncle in Wichita in September 1961 and I wanted to find out about him so contacted his family.  I learned that he had been looking for me as well before he joined the Navy.  I got his address and we began writing and he called me a couple of times and then he got a leave and came to flew in to Kansas City on November 7, where my dad and I went to pick him up.  It had been over 2 1/2 years since we had seen each other, even though we just recently started corresponding and talking on the phone, but there was something that happened when we did see each other that day.  It was if the time had stopped and we had been together always.

We talked and talked and decided since he would be making another long cruise, that we wanted to get married and when he got back we would move to Alameda where he was based.  He was 21 and I was 18 and I think both of our families knew that we were going to get married so really weren't that surprised but maybe because it was in such a short time.  We got our license and talked to the pastor of a church near by and on Saturday, November 11, 1961, we exchanged our vows with just our family present.

He left on November 16, so we only had a few days together but it seemed as if the time we had been apart was forgotten.  We felt as if we were just picking up where we left off.

I wrote a letter to put on the special flower that I will place on his grave today.  In that letter I wrote, "Years ago, the stars aligned and brought us together in ways we didn't know at first, but as we grew and after we met, we discovered how many times in our lives that our paths had crossed and how we both were set on this path to be together."

He was born in southeast Nebraska and I was born in southwest Iowa, not many miles apart.  Our families had made acquaintances before we were born and in later years, the families both moved to Wichita where we lived next door to one another.  Even the years we were apart, there was this bond that we would remember each other and when the opportunity came, I knew I had to find him just as he had looked for me.

I truly believe that it was meant to be that we would be together and for forty eight years we worked together to raise our two daughters, to love and support them and each other.  True, like any marriage, we had our little bumps in the road but the one thing that stayed true was our love for each other and our fidelity to each other.   We were soul mates from the first meeting until the very end.

His passing took a part of me with him and I only wish the fate hadn't been so cruel to separate us after all those years together.  He looked forward to this date as it was a milestone for both of us.  We would have celebrated our 50th anniversary with all the love we had for one another and looked forward to more years together.  He used to say that in this day and age, we were the unusual, we stayed together and honored our vows and fifty years is something to celebrate.

So today, I will celebrate, but it will be with the memories I have of the life we shared.  He was my first and my only true love and he was my friend and my confident, my rock but most of all he was my husband who loved me as much as I loved him.

Happy 50th Anniversary Honey.   ILYTMTYLTT  "Angel"