58 Years

November 27 was an important day in my life. It was our 58th wedding anniversary. Never dreamed I would be this old. Never dreamed I would be married this long. But I'm thankful for both things.

Charlie and I married only six months after we met. My parents and grandparents shuddered at the thought that I would marry someone I had only just met. But to both of us, it seemed the thing God would have us do. Despite my parents' objections, we had a wedding, went back to college, and continued our lives. Within a couple of years, Charlie was pastoring a church and I was playing the piano and teaching Sunday School. Of course, I was only nineteen when we married, I knew nothing about teaching adult ladies, but I followed the teachers' guide and off I went, happy as a lark. God protects the young. They don't know how many mistakes they make. And I surely made a lot of them.

God WAS in charge. We love each other deeply. And now we have been married all these years.

A couple of days after our anniversary, a package arrived in the mail. My daughter-in-law had alerted me that we would be getting a late anniversary present, so I was ready for it. I slit the tape and opened the box. Out jumped a bag of colored drinking straws. OK, so I drink water all day long and I need the straws, but this was strange.

I dug a little deeper and found 58 birthday candles, then 58 toothpicks! What was this, I wondered. I looked at the straw package again, and sure enough, someone had opened it, scratched through the number 50, and had written 58 over the number. Then I found a sleeve of money, then another. I looked closely and there were 58 quarters, 58 dimes, 58 nickels, 58 pennies, and even 58 postage stamps. And there was a CD. Written on it were the words, "58 pictures of our kitties."

I burst into laughter. Our son and daughter-in-law are always coming up with something unusual, but this is the icing on the cake! They sent 58 of several items to celebrate our 58th wedding anniversary.

Then on the bottom, I found a note.  This is what it said:

58 stamps --- 26.10
58 quarters-- 14.50
58 dimes ----   5.80
58 nickels ---   2.90
58 pennies --     .58
58 straws ----  1.53
58 candles----  4.50
58 toothpicks - 1.09
58 picures of kitties -- 1.00
______________________
Total             $58.00

Knowing that your parents and grandparents
have been together for 58 years...................     PRICELESS!

It was signed by our son and his wife, our grandson and his wife, our granddaughter, and the two cats and one dog that live at their address.

What a memory! And what a lot of work they did to make this all work out to $58.00.  Thanks, David and Margaret.