Thursday, December 23, 2010

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories, Day 23 - Sweetheart Memories

I did get engaged on Christmas Eve.  I was 10 days shy of my 18th birthday and my parents were not overly pleased!  I married fourteen months later.  How young we were!  But so much in love.

And I stayed in love and married to that sweetheart for 45 years.  The engagement ring band grew very thin over the years.  One week to the day after my husband died, the ring broke.  Not where it was so thin, but at the base of the setting.  I had it repaired and placed into an Eternity pendant and that's how I wear it now.  A forever symbol of a forever love.

My husband was a darling little boy ....see:


[Don't forget to click on the images to enlarge them, if you like.]

And not too bad in his uniform - this picture made about six months after we were engaged.


He went to work for my dad in the propane business - was just supposed to be temporary while we both went to college.  It became his passion and he devoted the rest of his life to the industry.  I love to remember him this way - so young and eager.



But this is what he was proudest of ...his family.  There's the patriarch himself - standing in the back.