Sixteen Years

(now I got that song in my head….)

Yesterday was our anniversary. Lorna and I use our first date as the anniversary date – June 23rd 1990. Sixteen years.

We’ve not had it easy but through it all, we stuck it out. Even after all these years, we are still learning about each other and growing not only as individuals but as a couple too.

All those years ago, Lorna was a technical writer for an insurance company in Valley Forge PA. I was a program coordinator for a respite program in a county “branch” of a national agency. We wore nice clothes, had money. We were Guppies.

Then she lost her job of 14 yrs just as I was giving in to my creative side. We moved from PA/NJ to here. Life became hard. Low funds, low mood, etc.

We kept telling ourselves the following:

When seedlings are grown in the protection of a greenhouse, they tend to grow fast, having long and weak stems. Then when they are planted outside, they are too weak to tolerate the elements. To prevent this, some greenhouse growers use fans to blow the seedlings first in one direction, then in another. Others use a sheet of paper and brush across the top of the seedlings several times a day in every direction. This will make the seedling shorter, but the stem will be much stronger and better able to handle life outside the greenhouse.

That’s what was happening with us. We grew stronger as a couple and therefore was able to handle everything that got thrown at us.

Here’s to the 16 years so far, and the 100 years to go. I love you, babe.

June 23rd 2005 entry