Bald Eagles Lifetime Mates-Marking our 50th!

It was a wintry day on January 2, 1971 that Big R and I tied the knot in a traditional church wedding which fulfilled my mom's dream of having the church wedding she never did.....altho I would have preferred an outdoor backyard simple wedding, my mom was insistent on a full blown Open invitation church wedding.  At the time I was pretty apalled that she had invited their entire church community....her own wedding had been an at home indoor wedding because her mom, my maternal grandmother, was ill with cancer.  My mom never got over not having the wedding of her dreams so while it upset me at the time , now it really seems not all that big a deal.  Afterall we did add some personal touches and insisted on some things that we felt made the wedding more "ours".  And my mom ended up wearing two right shoes for the entire ceremony because the mail order of them had gotten screwed up.  I  realized later in life that it meant that much to her that she suffered throught that.   We chose to have my aunt sing Martin Luther King's favorite hmnn Precious Lord and originally my Aunt wasn't scheduled to sing.  She had a beautiful voice.  We did marry while in our senior year of college and that was against my mom's "rules" so to say.  My Dad didn't seem to care one way or the other....but eventually my mom relented and then got into the planning full tilt.  My Dad thought the wedding was unique because we did readings from Kahil Gibran and that wasn't the norm back in 1971.  We also cut lots of lines out of the traditional wedding script....no obediance to the husband....no opening other than "Friends"......and we insisted that all my brothers be in the wedding in one way or antoher and originally my younger brother had been deemed too young (not suited) but I put my foot down and said he was in.  We didn't buy everybody gifts in the wedding party but wrote poems or quotes on wee cards.  We had reception put on by the church "ladies" afterwards so it wasn't costly and we chose a minister from a town near out college that Big R had a close relationship with.
  Our honeymoon was simple and at a cabin at a near by state park....riding bikes and viewing the making of mapel syrup at a maple tree festival.  It really was fine in the end that mom got her dream partially met....what was really important was that we have learned the essence of building a lasting relationshiip centered on love and compassion as our guide. Marriage is hard work ....learning to accept failings just as much as successes and learning to move past differences and keep ourselves both anchored on some common goals.To be able to disagree, argue , get really mad but come back after reflection and admit when you are wrong or to put yourselve into the others shoes.  Focusing on the love and strengths have build a bond that has lasted fifty years and we are both thankful for a stong foundation.  
    We couldn;t be more thankful for bringing a loving and kind son into this world and now having a loving and kind daughter in law and two loving and kind and funny grandchildren.  The days highlight was a zoom video that our son and dil put together With notes to us from family and friends.
We also celebrated by exploring in our beloved skagit valley and nooksake river areas viewing Bald Eagles who also mate for life.