Yesterday Elise and I celebrated our 19th anniversary. Most of the day it was a fairly ordinary day with school and work from home. We went to dinner at Jack Allens. Elise had the snapper salad. I had the chorizo stuffed pork tenderloin.
When we got home, Elise retreated into the laundry room to hurry up and write in my anniversary card. Unbeknownst to her, I spied her. And then realized, “Crap! I didn’t get a card for Elise.” So I ducked into the office because I knew there was a stash of random cards in the filing cabinet. Hoping I’d get lucky and find an anniversary card that was never given or an extra that didn’t make the cut in previous years, I unfortunately only had Mother’s Day, Christmas, and Grandma cards. The Christmas card made the cut. I had to cross out “Christmas” and write in “Anniversary.” The sentiment wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
That’s because Elise and I don’t need cards. We’ve made it through a lot together. I’m still baffled that 19 years of marriage and 23 years of being together have gone by so quickly.
I really like what Joanne wrote in a card that she and Steve sent us for our anniversary:
“This year in so many ways reminds us of the times during 2001 because of 9/11, so we have often thought of your wedding.”
Growing up, growing older, terrorist attacks, pandemics, raising children, figuring life out and laughing and loving our way through it.