how many years?

I have always (except for a few years as a young adult) been a part of a church family. One of the things that I love about being a part of a church family is the opportunity to get to know and love people of all ages and stages in life. To be totally honest here, I'm not that great with old people BUT there are some older folks in my life whom I adore. Bob and Julia are two of those people. When I was a young mother, I was in an accountability group with Julia. She had raised her children and was working on grandchildren and she allowed me to be her friend. We have spent many hours praying for our families and for others. We have spent many hours eating lunch at the Little Professor. Their son, Bob and my husband, Mark were on the same Emmaus walk together so we have lots of connections.

They celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary and I was so blessed to go to their party last weekend. I must admit that I am not a fan of dressing up on Saturday morning but I am so glad that I made myself get up and shower and dress and go to their party. It was a small party with family and friends. Gayle and Bill were at the party. Gayle was in that same accountability group with Julia and me. After they took this picture, I laughed and whispered in Julia's ear, "Let's tell Bob to go visit with someone else and the three of us can have reunion group right here." Julia is having trouble with her memory but she chuckled. She got it.

See this heart shaped cake? A cake has been baked in this pan for every wedding in their family for several generations. Isn't that cool? They had a big fancy cake from the bakery to share with everyone but they had this special cake that their daughter baked in a special pan.

Here is a picture of Linda with Bob and Julia. Linda and I go way back also. She and Mark go even further back. Her husband, Butch is older than Mark but they were in the same fraternity at Auburn. I think Linda may have been their little sister??? Anyway, Butch and Linda used to go to the same church with all of us. She was pregnant with her third (a boy) when I was pregnant with Laura and Glenn. As a matter of fact, she had Patrick one day in November and I delivered Laura and Glenn the very next day. Somewhere in my old picture box, there is a picture of the two of us in the hospital. I remember that she looked great and I looked like crap! Isn't that a weird thing to remember?

Here is a picture of Gayle, Julia and me. Just seeing this picture makes me smile.

65 years of marriage . . .wow! Mark and I will have our 27th anniversary in May. They have been married more than twice as long as we have. They have been such a blessing in our lives.