Field of Argent

Today is our twenty fifth wedding anniversary which gives cause for thought. I remember when I thought that 25 years was an impossibly long time and that only old people could possibly get there. The first time I was chastened by that was when my parents had theirs. They didn't seem that old. I suppose my mother was slightly older than I am now and my father slightly younger.
Indeed one of the things I note (is this a feature of growing old?) is that anything less than forty years is almost passé and Golden wedding anniversaries are quite common, so that I could happily write in the card I got for S that I hope we would have another 25 better years.
I am not so pedestrian as to suggest that the last two and a half decades have been so fantastic that we would want the next twenty five years to be just like it. God forbid! I just hope I am better at it than I have been.
Highlights? Well of course our three children have been the chief fruit of this period. We have managed to cope with three lots of school, and two lots of university so far. We haven't quite managed to liberate them from the nest. I look forward to that day!
But not only do we have children and nephews and nieces its been a great thing to marry some of them off, and bso there are also great nephews and nieces and. I am ready to be a grandfather. These are words I had never envisaged saying.
Our parents taught us how important family holidays were and we have been able to have good family holidays at least once every year. Not always far away, though we have enjoyed some pretty quality times in the last few years.
Lowlights? Can you imagine living with me for 25 years? Even my parents didn't have to cope with that! So it has not been without its trials. We had a period of separation about ten years ago, which was awful but necessary. My best man deserted us in our hour of need, apparently we used up all our quota of neediness and he had nothing more to give.
We have lived in 6 different places in that period. Both my parents died. The world has changed and John Howard has been PM for more than a third of that time! It would be remiss of me not to say that being a minister of the church has taken its toll on all of us.
Here's to the next 25!