Anniversary

Twenty-two years ago today I married the love of my life.

Only a few months before, I was returning to Naval Training Center Great Lakes where I was stationed. It was late and I climbed the stairs to my barracks to head to my room. My room was on the second floor. In the barracks I was in, the first two floors were male rooms and the third floor had females. There was a watch station on the landing between the second and third floors which was manned, actually “womanned” by a female sailor whose job it was to make sure that only females accessed the third floor.

As I climbed the stairs sometime after midnight I noticed a very cute female sailor struggling to keep her eyes open while she stood watch. It was summer so she was dressed in her summer whites and she really looked great in them. I started to walk on past but decided to say “Hi”. She replied and seemed friendly enough while we began to chat. Several hours later, we were still chatting when her four hour watch ended and she was relieved by the oncoming watch stander.

During the course of our conversation I learned that she liked art so I invited her to take the train down to Chicago with me to visit the Chicago Museum of Art. We would later make that date and over the course of several months made a number of journeys down to Chicago all the while becoming ever more smitten with each other.

As our time at Great Lakes was coming to a close we both were soon to get orders to be stationed nearly anywhere in the world the Navy has a presence. We both were scared that we would be separated and would likely never see each other again. For all the wrong reasons, we decided to get married. We wanted to marry so we could put in for spouse duty and hopefully get stationed close to one another. Amazingly enough, we managed to get stationed at the same Navy base in Long Beach, California and started this long journey together to where we are today.

Twenty-two years and two kids later we are still smitten. It has been an interesting journey so far. We worked at a number of jobs, lived in a couple of apartments and a home in a couple of different states all the while marveling at how good the marriage has been even though it probably shouldn’t have been.

We were both young, I was 22 and Diana was 19. We knew each other four months. Diana was a Christian and I considered myself either an atheist or at the very least an agnostic. We got married because we were two young lovers who feared losing each other more than we possessed the common sense to know that this is nothing to base a marriage on. In spite of this, our marriage has been a success.

We rarely fight, we almost always see eye to eye, we have similar likes, dislikes and personalities. Diana’s quiet faith and prayers would lead me towards faith in God and I would lead her to Texas (God’s country). We’ve built a life and a family and have been blessed far beyond what we deserve.

I grow more in love with Diana every day. I still think she’s as beautiful as she was when I first saw her all those years ago. She’s my best friend and my only lover. I thank God for bringing us together and for His providential hand in providing for us a wonderful marriage.

Diana my darling, Happy Anniversary! I look forward to many more to come.

Yours in love,

Scott