Celebrating 50 Years -- I Do, I Do

There are wedding vows and then there are wedding vows. We had no desire to be original or creative. I guess you might say we were traditionalists then and probably still are. Love, honor and obey works for both of us and we are in it for a lifetime.

Dad walked me down the aisle although I don't remember much about the walk. I don't recall being nervous but I do remember keeping my eyes on Bob and his grin. My dad said his line when asked and carefully stepped back to sit with my mother.

Our ceremony was officiated by two pastors, the pastor of the church who had allowed us to hold the ceremony in their sanctuary and the pastor of Bob's church where we were attending while going to school. Pastor Fish had done our premarital counseling and I do remember that. His talk about the love triangle sticks with me to this day. Think of an isosceles triangle with God at the top and each of us at the bottom angles. As long as we were both striving to get closer to God, we would move up the triangle and get closer to each other as well. Good lesson.

We began our vows. The "I dos" were easy. Just answer the question but the repeat-after-me part gave Bob a little scare. I spaced out for a moment. Somewhere in the middle of the promising, I suddenly realized that this was it. I was getting married. I wasn't frightened. I just paused to relish the moment. When I repeated the words that I needed to, there was a collective sigh of relief I'm sure but I didn't notice. I was just happy. I was marrying the man I loved.

On our silver anniversary we repeated our vows but we decided that if they've held up for fifty years, we're still good to go. No need to repeat them. We've got them down.