Loving My Husband...Loving My Life
Today is my 21st wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe the time has gone so quickly. I often wonder what my life would have been like without Tom. Our meeting was just by chance.
I was performing in a production at a local community theater. Tom knew one of the characters in the show and had come to see her. He was recently divorced from his wife of 15 years.
At the end of the show, he came up to me to tell me that I'd done a wonderful job playing the role. How sweet. I was smitten almost immediately.
A group of people were going out after the show and our mutual friend had invited Tom. Everyone else was with a spouse or date and so Tom and I spent the next two hours talking.
I had recently separated from my then husband. While Tom was very interested, he did not want to come between me and my husband. His marriage had ended badly and he did not want to play the same role in my divorce.
I have to admit this only attracted me to him more. I hadn't met a man with such moral conviction. We parted and went our separate ways but kept running into each other at different functions.
I divorced shortly thereafter. I sent Tom a card telling him I had divorced and would love to see him. We met for a drink and it was like no time had passed at all. We began seeing each other. Not really dating. Tom was very cautious. He was concerned it would just be a rebound relationship for me. He didn't want to have his heart broken. As time passed, we spent more and more time together. When we couldn't see each other, we would spend hours on the phone.
Tom was 39 years old and he had three boys from his previous marriage. I was touched by the way he loved his boys. He always put them first. This wasn't anything I had ever witnessed in a man. It was easy to see that I was falling in love with him.
Then one night, while Tom was preparing dinner for me and the boys, he asked me to get something from the refrigerator. When I opened the door, there was a large vanilla envelope addressed to me. I opened the envelope. Tom had written a poem to me.
It read:
I walked the way alone,
places where man and his mind
wrestle with self-created demons.
I walked the way alone,
where decisions are like narrow
pathways through the unlighted depths.
I walked the way alone,
finding unreal warmth from
unknown bodies with unseen emotions.
I walked the way alone,
until I met you...
with a smile that reaches to the
core of my being
and a touch that warms my heart,
I walk the way with you.
Love, Tom
Then he said, "I do, you know. Love you that is." That was the first time he had spoken those words. A year later, I had the pleasure of marrying my best friend.
So much has happened in those 21 years together. We have two children of our own, a daughter and son, 19 and 17. Two of his three older boys have married and now have children of their own.
Tom left a job he loved six years ago to take an early retirement and home school our kids through high school.
He has devoted his life to loving and caring for his family. Tom has spent countless hours serving in our church and community. He has always put the needs of others before his own.
That poem hangs in our bedroom as a constant reminder of the love we share together. I have been so blessed and I thank God everyday for our life together.
Loving my husband...loving my life.
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