Love & Hardship...
Love is in the air...
I feel this way every year that my parents celebrate another wedding anniversary.
I'm always like, "Wow, they made it."
I called daddy a little while ago, even though I had texted mom first thing this morning. He said, "How come you only told your mother Happy Anniversary? It's my anniversary too."
I said, "Well I'm calling you now. Plus mom didn't answer her phone. Happy Anniversary."
He said, "Well I was expecting a blog post or something."
On their anniversary last year, I wrote about two kids and a baby.
Before the day got away from me, I thought I'd at least tell them Happy Anniversary on facebook but then I remembered that I had shared this photo a few weeks ago and wished I had waited until today.
Mom & Dad circa 1982 - about 12 years married
It was the most liked status I've ever had on Facebook. People love love and endurance.
When I reflect on this picture, I think of it as the poorest time in our lives.
It was the poorest time that I can remember. It was a poor that I didn't know until I was older because otherwise our simple life was very rich. It shines through in that photo.
Sometime earlier this year my daddy told me about the poorest time in our lives. Daddy had moved to South Carolina when he was 20 years old. My mom's brother lived there briefly and suggested that they move down there so daddy could find a job. I was just a couple months old when he left and he sent for me and mom about six months later once he had found a job and a place for us to live.
The job daddy found was in construction. He had never laid a brick in his life but he told someone he could do it and they hired him. In no time they knew he didn't have any experience and then his job was to move the bricks from one spot to another. All day long. When the weather was bad, they didn't have any work and daddy didn't get paid.
On one of those bad weather days one of daddy's work buddies came over to the apartment to hang out. The guy asked daddy what they had to eat. Daddy said, "Nothing." The guy was like, "What do you mean nothing?" Daddy said, "We've got something for the baby but we don't have any food."
Right then and there that guy said, "Let's go". He took him to the grocery store and filled up the cart with food. He lectured daddy about asking for help when he needed it and never going hungry again.
Excerpt from First comes love, then comes marriage...
When I look at my parents, then and now, I'm in awe of their love, hardship and endurance. I am so glad they've been my role models - for better and for worse.
