Today is my wife’s birthday. Any of you that have followed this blog over the years know that I don’t talk too much about Claire — she’s mostly just mentioned in passing when the subject is something else.
I know it isn’t proper to mention one’s age, so I won’t. But suffice it to say that this birthday falls into the ‘major milestone’ category. It’s hard to believe that Claire is as old as she is — of course, it’s hard to believe I’m as old as I am.
There’s an old saying that a man marries a woman hoping she won’t change and a woman marries a man hoping to change him. The fact is, everybody changes — in all sorts of ways. Getting older or “aging” is only one of those ways. Age is no big deal — it’s just a number if… you’re healthy, having fun, enjoying your life — age is a welcome adventure.
I’m not a Shakespeare fan but I do remember a line from one of his sonnets that reads, “Love’s not Time’s Fool.” The subject of the sonnet is that beauty will fade, but true love never will. Well, even though Claire has reached that ’major milestone’ birthday, I don’t think her beauty has faded one bit and my love for her grows every day. I try to tell her I love her often, but I probably don’t do it enough. I doubt that anyone ever gets to the end of their life and thinks, damn, I wish I hadn’t said ‘I love you’ so many times.
We’ve been married more than 40 years, we have two children and two grandchildren and we’ve both changed a lot in that time — I guess, as they say, both inside and outside. When I look at her I see her as the only girl I ever considered marrying. The girl that I traveled a lot of the world with. The girl that I experienced earthquakes, terrorist attacks, fires, typhoons, good times and bad with. I see the girl that gave birth to our kids. I see the joy — and worry — as we brought them home and they became great people. I see years of happiness and smiles and love in her face.
Periodically, people say, “you two seem to get along really well.” I think that’s true and I think what happens over time is that I become more attracted to Claire’s whole person — I love her personality, her charm, her talent, her toughness, her wit — she’s amazing — mischievous, smart and increasingly wise. The longer I know her, the more good stuff I find to be attracted to and I find her more attractive as the days go on…. her smile never fails to brighten my day.
So here we are at that ‘major milestone’ birthday… how old do you have to be to have a ‘major milestone’ birthday? I think Satchel Paige said, “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old your were?” See, the age thing really isn’t important at all — the important thing is being loved so completely by someone that your age doesn’t matter one bit. Happy Birthday to my best friend, true love and soul mate — Claire.
— 30 —
Couldn’t have been said any better!