My Marriage Model

Today is Smallgood Granny & Pop's 64th wedding anniversary.  They are a swell pair.  They have just the right amount of tenderness mixed with teasing and self-deprecation.  My Pop jokes that he knows why he's stayed with Granny all of these years, but he has no idea why she's stayed with him.  Granny will tell you that she wonders every day if she made a mistake, but everyone knows it's bull.  Pop loves no one else in this world as tremendously as he does my Granny.  And Granny cares for no one as dearly as she does my Pop.

I love the story of how they began dating.  I imagine it all in black and white-- like a movie from the era.  They met at a soda shop.  Pop was asked to accompany his friend who had a date with my Granny.  The friend must not have had what it took to get a second date because my Pop asked if he could take Granny out the next night, which happened to be my Granny's birthday.  They were married 3 months later.  She was just sixteen (she thought she was seventeen and lied about her age; she found out her actual age a few years later).  He had just turned 21 the day before.  His mama and sisters had all said he couldn't bring a wife home until he was 21.  

Over Thanksgiving, I spotted these sticky notes on the side of the china cabinet.  One was just relaying a message about an errand Pop was running.  The other was the type of romantic statement that cements why they are still together.  Granny said she saved them so he doesn't have to re-write them.  She tries to come off as completely practical, but I know she's super sentimental.

They aren't the couple that's going to smile sweetly and claim they've never had a fight (they aren't Mitt and Ann).  They've had their arguments and their sacrifices and their resentments I'm sure, but the truth of the matter is that they've moved past them.  They've chosen to focus on what is important.  They've always chosen love and togetherness.

I pray for this kind of enduring relationship.  I pray for the chance to have a lifetime of it.  I pray that I can be the one to leave notes and save notes and cherish every day with Bigbad.

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