#51

Five years ago I wrote about my parents' journey to get married. It was at the time of their 46th wedding anniversary.

Last year was their 50th anniversary. I'm not sure why I didn't write something then, but I didn't. We had a celebration. A special blessing was given at mass. Gold decorations on the tables at lunch. All of us in awe of the longevity of their marriage.

And here we are, another year in the books.

A couple of days ago, I was walking Jarvis and thinking about their 51 years. So many things to fill all those years. So many things bringing ups and downs.

Those "things" are 5 children. In their 51 years of marriage, only 10 months were childless. My oldest brother was born on New Year's Eve of 1968. My sister came the next December. My next brother came 2 years and 1 month later. I came 3 years and just under 2 months after him. Finally, my little brother came 4 years and 8 days after me. So, yeah, 10 months without any kids.

I can't even imagine what having 5 kids could be like. We were in a house with 1 bathroom. All 5 of us went to Catholic school. We were involved in different activities - a variety of sports and classes at museums. My dad worked an office job, I honestly couldn't tell you what it was, though. It was standard office job hours. My mom worked retail at a fabric store where she could demonstrate her great sewing skills. Dad would get home, Mom would leave if that's what her schedule was. When she worked weekends, my dad would drive her so that he could have the car to take us to whatever places we needed to go.

Around the time I was in 6th grade, the company my dad worked for was closing up shop and moving to Canada and one of the Carolinas (I think). My parents did consider having us move to Canada. We went up for a visit. My brothers' interests were involving hockey and mine was whether or not they had tornadoes. Anyway, the decided against it. My dad had been 16 when he started with the company and he was 50-ish when this was going down. They decided that my dad would commute. He would come home late afternoon on Friday and leave Monday morning. He did that for a year and a half. That's when we got a second car, or at least I associate the second car with this time. By second car, I'm talking beater. It was not going to make it on any road trip.

There it is. A snapshot of their marriage. Just a mere fraction of what has been going on for the last 51 years.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!