Mom and Dad's 63rd Anniversary

Had my mother lived, March 4th would have been their anniversary.  I always hesitate to make much of it, especially now that she is gone.  Theirs was a very rocky road.  I don't carry many happy memories between the two of them.  My father is not and has not been one to celebrate such things... or Christmas, or Birthdays...so it was, for me, something I recognized for her, not him.  ( If you've read me for any length of time, I have shared that when we lived in South Carolina, I called her local florist and had flowers delivered for an anniversary, signed "Your favorite daughter".  They only have 2.... Mom guessed wrong.   I had forewarned my sister so to us,  it was funny.  I was out of state, the florist was local so she just assumed it was my sister.  So..... the next year.... I did it again.  You would think she would have known then.  Nope!   My sister got the credit then too.  So that was a running joke for years.  Mom was not happy.  We were laughing at her and she did not appreciate it.  (We did.)

This photo was taken of Gerald and Nancy in May of 1950.  Mom was 19, Dad may have had his 22nd, May 26th Birthday.  Mom would be 20 in June and I would arrive in July.  They look happy.  They had left all they knew of family and friends in Missouri, in the rear view mirror,  as they made their way to Flint, Michigan so Dad could work for General Motors. 

I have mentioned previously that they were married March 4th, 1949, when they were 18 and 21.  They had only dated a few weeks.  They eloped, with friends serving as their witnesses.  Then, (my grandmother told my sister and I when we were in our 20s...that they kept the marriage secret,and went home to their respective parent's homes for 3 months.   I've never gotten a straight answer on the "whys" of that.  I think I need to sic  YFS (your favorite sister...) on that with my dad.

This is from their 25th anniversay party that my sister planned.  YFS, Mom, dad, my brother and me, March, 1974.


My father will be 85 in May.  I wonder if he even knew that anniversary has passed.

Dancing Together for 30 Years - January 9th

Happy Anniversary to us.  It really does not seem possible that when this 30 year old mother of a 7 year old daughter.........

asked this 25 year old marathon runner (and co-worker)

 to come visit her at the cabin on Lake Huron, where they ( Sarah and I)  were spending vacation time with her parents, that it would lead to this.

Which.... lead to this

                                                              and this just 6 months later.

On this day 30 years ago, in Michigan,  the temperature was a chill factor of -50 degrees.  So where did we go for our honeymoon?  Toronto!  burrrrrrr.  Our car wouldn't start so I had to call my sister and her husband along with their young daughter,, to pick us up at the hotel, in their Honda, to take us to the train station in Sarnia.   I think that was the beginning of the "Farkle Family" trips.  We have always called all the goof ups on vacations "Farkle Family" events.  Now I know why.

Soon we became a family of five.

                    This song was popular when this romance began so it immediately became one of ours.

I still hope we're dancing for another 30 years.