Threads of Happiness

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts 26 Comments

Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years. ~Simone Signoret

My husband and I just made it through another year together and celebrated an anniversary this weekend. Oh, the memories that an anniversary can bring to mind. We were very young when we met. Darrell was a senior in high school and I was a freshman. Some things are hard to explain and that instant attraction between two people is one of them. But that spark did seem to ignite at that very first unplanned meeting at a high school football game.

At the time, our county had two high schools – the one in town and another small all twelve grades school out in the western part of the county. He went to that out in the county school and I went to the one in town. So we weren’t in the same school. He happened to be with my friend’s date and I happened to be with that friend. They gave us a ride home from the game and in many ways, our life together started on that night. Not many years later, we married and before our first anniversary we were parents of a beautiful little boy. Nothing like being a mom to make you grow up fast.

The picture up at the top is the first we ever took together. We were at an amusement park with his church group and ducked into one of those little photo booths where you put in a quarter (I told you it was a long time ago) and got a strip of four pictures.

I didn’t know they still had those booths around, but a few years ago when we were at the Louisville Zoo taking part in the St. Jude Walk, they had set up a booth like that for fun. So we decided to recreate that first picture and see if it was as much fun as the first time we got our picture made. It was fun but we didn’t look nearly as young.


A long marriage is two people trying to dance a duet and two solos at the same time. ~Anne Taylor Fleming

We’ve been married a long time now. But we’re still walking down life’s road together while pursuing our own dreams too. Enjoying the blessings. Facing the hard times. Finding our way through life. Being thankful for the gift of a beautiful family.

That’s how life goes. Many threads of life connecting us. It’s the same with a book when I’m writing. I have to come up with those threads of life to make my story and people come to life. Of course, I have to give my characters plenty of hard times because while happily
ever after might make a good ending, happy times the whole book through won’t keep readers interested. We like it when the characters in books dream big, overcome problems, and reach their goals. You know what? We want the same for ourselves and our friends and family.

Darrell and I didn’t do anything special to celebrate our big day. Our daughter and son-in-law came to visit and one of my sons and part of his family came to see them. Just for a family visit, but then maybe that was a special way to celebrate the love that has kept us on this marriage road and gifted us with our children and grandchildren. What better way is there to celebrate a marriage.

When I do the math and come up with that anniversary number of 58 years, it seems almost impossibe. But the years do pile up when we’re busy living and enjoying family life.

So how about those of you who are married? How many years have you celebrated? Ten years? Twenty-five? Forty? Fifty? We had a couple in our church who celebrated 75 years together.  

However many years that is, I hope the threads connecting you with your loved ones are threads of happiness.

 

Comments 26

  1. We celebrated our 48th in august. Sometimes it’s hard to believe it’s been that long but then other times it feels like it flew! My dad n mom will celebrate their 73 this coming February! I don’t want to let go but at the same time it’s hard to see what they’re physically going through! So we pray!

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      That’s really great that your parents are still celebrating love together, but age does make some things harder. I’m sure you’ll keep loving them and doing all you can to help them.

      I know what you mean about those years flying by, but then when you think about all that has happened, I guess we lived those years to the fullest.

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      Happy early anniversary, Lisa. I hope by then your husband will be feeling better. He looked really sick in the picture I saw on FB.

      I know the two of you have shared some great years together.

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  4. I loved reading about how you and your husband met. Happy Anniversary! 58 years is a nice long time. My husband and I celebrated 45 years in September. Ours was a whirlwind romance. We met over the CB radio, believe it or not. Our first date was in late August and we were married one month later. Our families thought it wouldn’t last but here we are 45 years later still together.

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      How fun is that, Lee. Once you two connected on that radio you didn’t waste any time. Glad you have enjoyed a lot of years since then. You keep trucking you’ll get up there with a lot more years like us.

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  5. I love to hear about how couples met! My husband and & I worked together at a bank. Last mo. we celebrated 31 years of marriage!

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      Happy 31 plus anniversary, Jolynn. I’m like you and do very much enjoy hearing those how we met stories. I think I need to ask more of my relatives that question so I can enjoy their stories too. You sometimes have to wonder what makes that first spark light. I do know my sister-in-law who just celebrated 50 years with my brother-in-law says she didn’t like him at all during their first years as classmates in high school. But then eventually, that spark ignited.

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  6. What a lovely story you and Darrell share!

    My husband and I were seated next to each other in our “homeroom” for our first day of high school, and later that Fall, we had our first date together. We didn’t marry until I had graduated college and he was several years into his career in the U.S. Coast Guard. This past July 6, we celebrated our 54th wedding anniversary.

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      You had a nice long courtship, Roberta, but sounds as if you found each other early and now have had a good marriage with many years together. Thank you for sharing where you met. The same a Jolynn and others, I love hearing those how we met stories.

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  7. Love the photos! Happy Anniversary to you and your husband. My husband I celebrated 20 years in April. Some days it seems like it should be more than that, but other days I can’t believe so many years have gone by already! It doesn’t seem like such a big thing compared to your 58 or the couple at your church celebrating 75 years, but it is a blessing to find someone special to spend your life and have a family with and every year is a gift. I am thankful every day for the threads of happiness in the life my husband and I have made together. I hope and pray your husband and you are blessed with many more happy years together!

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      So glad you found the right guy to have those threads of love with, Hope. It is a blessing to have a good marriage and a loving family.

      That early picture has always been a fun memory for us. We get older but that just means we’ve added a lot of memories.

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  11. I love the pictures from when you first met and more recently. My husband and I are also highschool sweethearts that married young. We. have been married 31 years; it will be 32 in December.
    So many threads to hold us together and such a difference in those first pictures compared to now.😏 Oh how time flies by…

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      Well, here’s an early happy anniversary wish, Robin. I hope you and your husband have a great 32nd anniversary and that you will celebrate many more together. Those family and love threads do bind us to one another.

      The thing about those pictures back when and now is that I often feel like i’m still that youngster with so much more coming my way. I’ve been blessed.

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  12. Oh Ann, I love seeing into the window of your world and seeing the testimony of one married for 58 years! Congratulations. A sweet love story. May you have many more beautiful memories to make together.
    I also married a country boy who went to a country school where his grandfather taught. Love hearing about those times so long ago. We’re coming up on 19 years, praise the Lord!

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      A lot of memories through the years, Amy. We don’t do everything together the way some couples do, but we have always happily gone to church together. We had many years of kids sitting with us on the pew and now unless those kids are visiting, we just hold down our pew on our own as we continue to worship together.

      Glad you and your country boy have had good years together and hope you have many, many more.

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  13. My husband and I have been married 47 years. At the end of March, it will be 48 years. He’s definitely a gift from God and my favorite husband! He’s a keeper!

    Congratulations to you and your husband on your 58 years! What a testimony to others!

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