Happy 67th Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

October 23rd, 1941, they were married.

My dad was home on leave, in Indiana, from his army service in World War II. He wore his uniform; she wore a dress in a color she calls "soldier blue." It snowed.

Their long love story has been an inspiration to me, and to many others.

This anniversary will be a quiet day for them. Yesterday, with the help of my brother and his wife, Mom was able to get Dad to the dentist. It takes a little group of people to get him places.

My sister will probably bring them a treat, maybe Frostys from Wendy's, and celebrate with them.

Given the choice, my dad, who was an extremely energetic, hard-working man until Alzheimers parked its demonic (truly) presence on top of his life, would now opt to stay in bed all day, if we would let him. However, if you go into the bedroom where he is curled up all cozy under his blankets, and say "Dad, you wanna get up and eat a pecan Blizzard/Wendy's frosty/piece of pie?" he will pretend to deliberate and then say "Oh, might as well." And then he's back in the living room with us for a little while. Sweets are the only surefire bribe. This is common with Alzheimers patients.

After all these years, and even with the very small subset of Dad's memories in his possession, the love between him and his bride still radiates.



If you'd like to read the longer posts from their 66th and 65th wedding anniversaries, go here.

The photo was taken 15 months ago.