Twenty nine years: One year short of three decades.
Twenty nine years: At least ten times longer than anyone expected it to last.
True, the odds favored the skeptics: An actress from a failed marriage and a divorced, alcoholic, womanizing journalist whose idea of a long relationship was a three-day weekend.
We ignored the odds and the skeptics on that cold December night twenty-nine years ago when we stood in the living room of the home of Rev. Lawrence Jackman and his family as he performed a marriage ceremony.
But Larry Jackman forgot a key part of his role of the ceremony and when he and his wife joined us for dinner in nearby St. Louis I asked if he wasn’t supposed to actually pronounce us “man and wife.”
“Oh my God,” he said. “Did I forget that?” We nodded, so he reached across the table, grabbed both our hands and said “by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife.”
The waiter picked that time to arrive with our food, looked at the improbable scene in his restaurant and asked: “Is this something like getting married by the captain of a ship?”
For too much of the next 29 years, I would challenge the commitment we made in both the living room and the restaurant dinner table. Yet, for reasons that some found astounding, you stuck with me through a prolonged battle with the bottle and my many other personal demons.
With many of those demons left behind, we settled here in the mountains of Southwestern Virginia for a life that I promised would be quieter and free of controversy. But quiet is not my way and controversy is never far behind. A habit of speaking out means you must still deal with those upset by what I write and say.
Yet you continue to understand and accept my failings and broken promises. I may not have deserved such love, loyalty and understanding but I would not be here today without it.
Happy anniversary my love. We’ve made it 29 years. May we continue to make it, one year at a time.
A lovely tribute!
Belated congratulations to you both!
As another commenter stated, it is great to hear a story of success in the face of odds. It is not easy, regardless of odds or not. Wishing you another 29 years of success, as we celebrate our 49th this weekend. As my husband says each year…”The best is yet to come.”
to have found each other.
Congrats to you!