Wedding anniversary; marriages of marriages and clock. Tic Tock. What happens when BOTH spouses forget THE DAY? Who knew it was possible and what the hell does it mean?
Yesterday was our wedding anniversary. We have been talking about it for the last few months. You know, the usual “what do you want to do?” “Oh I’m not sure, what do YOU want to do?” “Surprise me!” etc. Dine out, dine out, what menu? Do you want to go for a weekend? Where? etc. We never really PLANNED what we were going to do and then all of a sudden it was this morning and my husband said. “Honey, I think yesterday was our anniversary and we both missed it!”
We both looked at each other with wide eyes and then we laughed. No way! Too funny! “Well,” I asked, “was it good for you?”
“Great,” he said, “do you want to sign up for one more year?”
I paused, pretending to think about it, then, grinning, I said, “Sure, why not? We sure have been married a long time.”
He looked at me with a little boy smile and said “thank you?” We both laughed, hugged, and then continued to prepare for our day.
I was wondering how we could have missed it. My head had all kinds of old “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts” and what do these kinds of thoughts mean. He just wasn’t upset with this revelation. All I wanted was to know what day we were going to celebrate and what sounded like a great idea.
The idea of us missing an anniversary … well, how strange? This insurance fell through the cracks. Maybe we just feel comfortable with being together these days and I find that there are things we do that say “happy anniversary” many days a year. So a forgotten anniversary date doesn’t really bother me that much in the grand scheme of things.
Before leaving for work, she cut fresh flowers to replace the wilted ones, as she always does. Late-blooming peach-colored roses and brightly colored zinnias echoed on the tables. Just something to remember, perhaps the most important measure of love. Works for me.
