Half a Century

 

I have been married for 53 years...

My first marriage lasted 23 years and my second marriage is going into its 30th year...

Although, for 5 of those 30 years we lived together and technically were not married to each other, but for us, it's the same thing.

Do we always get along?

Hell no!!!

While there has not been any real physical abuse, there has been plenty of verbal abuse on both sides.

Maybe...  just maybe...  we should have divorced several years ago, but we did not...  not sure why, but we didn't.

We have a lot invested in each other and we have experienced more than our fair share of both good and bad shit.

Her son got killed by a drunk driver in 2001 and my daughter decided to stop communicating with me in 2017... nothing in over 5 years.  As far as I am concerned she might as well be dead too.

During our marriage, we became debt free, took 12 ocean cruises (Caribbean, Mediterranean, Alaska, & Hawaii), vacationed several times in Mexico, around the US, and Europe, and still have 300,000 miles on Delta's frequent flyer program.

We been burned by timeshare purchases several times...  and, you would think that we would have learned our lesson, but we still keep believing in the positive nature of sales people.  Our last one is still active in the Berkshires.

We have managed to save enough money to pay our monthly bills for 40 years, but it is highly unlikely that we will actually spend all that we have saved.

We are 75 and 70 respectively and still do all our own yardwork each spring -  summer -  fall and plan to continue these activities at least until we are 80 and 75...  maybe 85 and 80...  who knows.

We have no desire to buy an electric car unless we absolutely have to, but if an electric car is purchased, our travels away from home will be limited.  The last thing we want to do, is find ourselves waiting in line to charge our batteries, and then waiting several more hours waiting for the damn things to charge.

I have no desire spending my last few years waiting for a car battery to charge while I am vacationing.

I cannot imagine what life would be like not being married, although I have fantasized about getting divorced a second time and how I would live.

Marriage is about companionship and not necessarily love as you get older.  Being with someone is better than being alone.