60 Years and Still Going...

Tomorrow will be Vernon and Virginia Lawrence, my parents, 60th wedding anniversary. Imagine that, 60 years together. This week when Papa and I sang at the nursing home he paused as the clock got to about 4:15pm. Then he told the residents that at that time on that day 60 years ago, he and Mimi were going to see the doctor for their physicals and going to the courthouse to get their license to be married. That would have been a Friday. They wanted to be married on Saturday because they had no time off from work and wanted the weekend to be their 'honeymoon' time. What they didn't know was that they would have a 3 day wait in Louisiana after getting their license until they could legally use that license to get married. That meant the following Tuesday. So they search around on Saturday to see if they could find someone who would marry them and then date the marriage certificate 3 days ahead. No one would play that game with them. Finally on Sunday morning they found a minister in Texas that would do that for them. The minister had his wife stand as witness and he married Vernon Nelson Lawrence and Virginia Mae Fisch. And that marriage has continued through good times and bad, through all the ups and downs that come as you raise 3 girls and miscarry 2 times, thru several job changes and training for jobs, through many years of church service in many callings and brought them to this most unlikely of places, Georgetown, Kentucky with Papa in an apartment close enough to visit his beloved wife daily in the nursing home where she resides with Alzheimers. Wednesday, after we finished singing and taking the musical equipment out to Papa's car he and I came back in to tell Mimi good-bye. He held your little face in his big rough hands and kissed her gently. She looked up at him with those brown eyes that still twinkle and said, "I love you." Now, I have to say as I sit here with tears streaming down my face, that this is what marriage is about folks. Even through a clouded brain and older age they love each other. May I be so fortunate and may each of you be so fortunate.