55 Years and Counting

Cutting our wedding cake. August 21, 1965.

 

Fifty-five years ago today, a beautiful and amazing young woman put her hand in mine and said "I do." Why would she do that? As she told me years later, "I knew life with you would be an adventure." And so it has been. 

But seriously, how many twenty-year-olds would be willing to tie their lives to a widower eight years her senior with a four-year-old son? As that son wrote 48 years later in a moving Mother's Day tribute, "She was only 20 when she married my father, and while it didn't mean much to me at the time, I've since marveled at that. A beautiful 20-year-old woman, surely not lacking in prospects, taking on a moderately bratty (so I've been told) four-year-old of her own free will and choice? Who does that?

"My mom, that's who."

Louise with Rob and Don at Vizcaya (Miami) 1970.

 

And that's who she is. Our life together has been an adventure. Not easy, no. But far from boring. We are two stubborn opposites who usually resolve things by butting heads. But we do resolve things, and we do keep on loving each other. (Which may be definite proof that there is a God.)

Louise at a restaurant near the Coliseum. Rome, 2005.

 

Since 1990, we seem to average one major trip about every five years. In 1990 we went to Europe twice; first Eastern, then Western. In 1996 we went to Hawaii. In 2000, Louise went to Ireland with her sisters. That was a Devlin girls trip, so I didn't go. But in 2005 we went to Italy, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein; in 2010 to Israel and Jordan; and in 2015 our 50th anniversary trip to Alaska and Canada. Louise has also been to Belize, Romania, and El Salvador on medical missions and my photographic assignments have taken me to many places. So life has indeed been an adventure. 

Louise with a baby donkey.

 

And not just travel. More than 30 years ago we forsook suburban life and moved to a remote 30 acres in the north Georgia mountains, where we lived in a trailer for six years, built a house, and raised a small herd of beef cattle. 

Louise on our new tractor, 2005.

 

And now it's our 55th anniversary. Who could have imagined such a thing? 

Louise at 75

 

The cattle are gone now; the house and property are soon to go on the market. But we're still here, still together, and still looking forward to whatever God has for us in the future.

Blog Note: I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at alifeinphotography.blogspot.com. I'm trying to build up my readership, so if you're reading this on Facebook and like what I write, would you please consider sharing my posts?

(Photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2020)

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone