Love Story 2
I suppose when I started this, I should have extended my invite to stories of people who are you in your life, not just yourself.
I don’t know if this is the sort of thing you’re looking for, but here’s my story. I had great marriage role-models in both my pairs of grandparents.Both sets were married until my respective grandfathers died at ripe old ages. My mother’s parents met before WWII in art school, and when my grandfather went into the service, he would send her cartoons he’d drawn through V-mail while he was in Europe. My mother and her sisters still have some of them framed as art.
My father’s parents met on a blind date set up by her sister and her boyfriend for a double date. They were married mere months after and had my father almost exactly a year after that. They were married for 52 years, had four sons and a daughter, 13 grandkids, and 2 great-grandkids. They loved to travel, and some of the sweetest photos taken of them were from their last vacations together; one to Scotland, and the last to Alaska.
They weren’t perfect, and things didn’t always go smoothly, but they believed that the rough bits make you appreciate the good parts more, and they weren’t afraid to work at figuring things out. Both sets were small, family business owners who started out with nearly nothing and built successful lives. They taught me and all of my cousins about hard work and generosity and loyalty, and they taught us to play, and to count on the people in our family, and that Family didn’t have to be limited to people that are related to you by blood. I hope to someday marry my best friend and live a long life with them, just as they did.
~Jessica
I love that in this story there is a 52 year marriage, something nearly unheard of. I really sometimes do wonder what we now do wrong as opposed to back then. Is it that we once persevered through the tough times and maybe settled for what we had, or that we knew how to treat one another with kindness and respect? I am happy I live in a modern world with technological advances, but I wish there was more of an old fashioned elegance and romance to dating these days.
Keep your stories coming in. If you have one you think needs to be told to restore my faith in relationships and marriage ( and maybe even dating) please email me nikki@drnikkig.com.au.
Happy Writing,
Dr Nikki G
