Right On Time

Today is our 49th anniversary. The date comes from when Joe and I had a 'secret ceremony' led by a Catholic Priest who could have been defrocked for participating in the wedding. No one knew except the small gathering that was there. It was hard going back to work when the ground under my life had shifted and not telling people, pretending that nothing had happened. The silence around our lives was suffocating.

But it had been a beautiful ceremony, in our apartment, and I remember it, every detail of it. I remember Joe's proposal and how amazingly intimate it was. It wasn't one of those wonderful big showy ones, it was quiet and unexpected and terribly, terribly romantic.

The year we count back to is when we were sixteen, meeting in the hallways of Campbell River, and without knowing it at the time, mating for life.

Now, today, we are going for a walk with the girls down on the pathways along the river and into Fairy Lake Park. Kinda funny right. Then we'll have a bite of lunch.

Anniversary dinner is our big tradition. We have hot dogs and potato salad on the deck. We've done this for years and years and years. Joe makes the best potato salad in the land and I'm already looking forward to it.

We don't do gifts.

We don't get each other cards.

We don't have a party.

It's just us, and the girls this year.

We need none of that. All we need is the opportunity to head into another year together. That's the greatest gift we get. Time to be together. That's all we ever wanted. And that gift arrived, this morning, right on time.