Happy 44th Anniversary to Us!
May 31, 2011 by Lillie
Forty-four years ago I walked down an improvised aisle on my parents’ enclosed back porch to meet my groom, my hero, my colorful character—Jack.
We’ve faced a few challenges in our lives, and each of us has cared for the others during illnesses. However, we’ve never lacked for love or laughter.
Today we carry more pounds and wrinkles, and we move a little slower. Some of our laughs today come from what Jack thinks I or someone else said, which is often very different from what was actually said. His hearing is poor, and he says he’s filled his brain up in seventy-eight years of living so he doesn’t have room for more. So sometimes his misunderstandings are pretty funny.
Jack used to do all the grocery shopping and the laundry. Now, the laundry is my job, and we share the shopping. Our trip to Walmart at 2 AM is a highlight of our week. I’ve always been a night owl, and Jack sleeps off and on through the day and night, so the middle of the night is a great time for us. We don’t do well in crowds, so we enjoy shopping when there are few customers around.
But what makes our shopping so special are the people at our local Walmart. Jack used to shop at a local grocery store, and we ended up at Walmart the first time because it happened to be close by on my way home from an emergency room visit. I was having myoclonic seizures in the car while Jack went in to get a prescription filled, and four Walmart managers came out to the car and stayed with me, comforting me the entire time. So Jack started shopping there and got acquainted with the store general manager, Al Slavin, a fellow Texas Aggie.
After shopping became too difficult for Jack to manage on his own, we started our wee-hours-of-the-morning shopping schedule. We realized the store would be full of stockers replenishing the shelves, and we knew we could ask questions if needed help. But we didn’t know how helpful and friendly the staff would be. I would love to name each one individually, but I don’t even know all their names.
Both of us use the store scooters, and everywhere we go in the store, workers ask if we need help. If we happen to arrive when some of the stockers are taking a break in front of the store, a couple will go get scooters and bring them out to us. The guys cleaning the floor stop to greet us and ask how we are. The checkers and managers joke with us and go out of their way to be helpful. I never enjoyed shopping before, but now Jack and I both look forward to our Walmart outing.
After we finish shopping, we head off to breakfast at Denny’s at San Pedro and Bitters. Brittany sees us pulling into the parking lot, and she has our table ready and my decaf brewing. She’s always upbeat and enthusiastic and remembers what we like.
If anyone had told me forty-four years ago that we would look forward to a weekly date of grocery shopping and breakfast, I wouldn’t have believed it. But anything I do with Jack is fun, and the people at Walmart and Denny’s make our date even better!
Jack has a doctor’s appointment today, then we’ll have lunch at Mr. and Mrs. G’s Home Cooking, a little hole-in-the-wall cafeteria-style restaurant that has the best Southern home cooking you can imagine.
Happy anniversary, Jack. I love you!
Happy Anniversary, Lillie and Jack! What a lovely post…I hope and pray my husband and I are able to share 44 years of marriage that’s as full and rich as the years you two have shared! Have a wonderful day, Lillie!
Thank you, Lisa. We have been truly blessed, and I pray you and your husband enjoy similar blessings.
Happy Anniversary to Lillie and Jack! This is so sweet. Wow, 44 years! That is amazing. Congratulations! Here’s to many more.
Thanks for the good wishes, Dawn.
Many Many happy returns of the day you know you are the true symbol of love and prove that how to understand each other in life.
Rocky,
Thank you for the kind words and good wishes.
Happy anniversary! and I do hope that your next 44 years together will be as sweet as you!
Awww…thank you, Mia!
You are so perfect together. I wish you will celebrate your 100th anniversary.
Mark,
Wow! We would be old then.
Happy Anniversary Lillie and Jack! It sounds like you have been blessed with a very happy marriage. My husband and I will celebrate 25 years together this year and we recently told each other that we love each other more with each passing day. I know I have been blessed with a wonderful husband and hope that we will make it to 44+ years together also.
Barbara,
May you and your husband celebrate 50 years or more!
Congratulations on celebrating 44th anniversary. I am glad to learn of your good shopping experiences and better dates at Denny’s. I wish that you’ll enjoy more years together as a couple.
Thank you for the good wishes, Rose.
That’s so sweet Lillie! Congratulations to you and jack! It must have been a hard road to tackle, but I sincerely admire relationships that last that long. Perhaps the real secret to that kind of relationship is to always look back to your foundation – friendship.
Lauren,
Friendship, respect, and commitment with Christ as the center.
Congratulations!!!
fred
Thanks, Fred.
Sorry it’s a bit late Lillie, but…
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!!
Congratulations
Thanks, Christopher.
To have such an enduring love is a beautiful thing. Happy Anniversary and may you have many more.
I think as we grow older we can treasure the little things a little more. Your story reaffirmed that for me.
Thank you, Derra.
I live on an island off the coast of Maine. It’s a day long trip usually to get some shopping done. A trip to Denny’s and Walmart is the highlight of my Month!
Jon,
Wow! Sounds like you’re in a beautiful isolated spot.
44 years is amazing and wonderful, congratulations.
Can I borrow your Walmart and your Denny’s please? Your experience is so unlike what I have found here in Florida and many other places. A Walmart with helpful employees and a clean Denny’s are very rare.
Jonathan,
We’re very blessed. We couldn’t be happier.
Congratulation. Have a blessed life,
Princess,
Thank you for the good wishes.
The weekly date at your best time of day is great. You’ve learning to make your timetables work instead of forcing them into what the perceived norm would be!
I’m a night owl too, but work against it to fit into everyone else’s schedule. I like your idea better.
Happy Anniversary!
Sally Ferguson recently posted..Passionate- Intelligent Prayers
Sally,
Setting your own schedule is one of the benefits of being old.
No children to get off to school, no jobs to report to … Fortunately, my clients are very understanding and often even appreciate my unusual working hours. Of course, we have to make adjustments for doctor’s appointments, one of the not-so-fun parts of being old.
Congratulations Lillie and Jack. What a great time you’re having together. We lived for a while in Mt Vernon, Ohio and it’s so easy to visualize you guys whizzing round the store at that ridiculous hour then having breakfast afterwards. Mind you, it’s your gift of being able to place people right in the middle of your story and see/hear/feel everything that’s going on. Are there any other places that Jack and you frequent together at 2.00am in the morning?
Russell,
There aren’t many places open at 2:00 AM, so we stick with the regulars.
Happy belated anniversary! Sounds like God has really blessed you two with a lasting love.
Renae,
We are truly blessed and truly thankful.
It is the simple things in life that make it worthwhile. You and Jack are blessed to have each other.
Sensei Matt,
You’re right–so often people look for big things to make them happy, when it really is the small, simple things that matter. A fancy date to a nice restaurant is great once in a while, but a lifetime marriage is built on weekly trips to Walmart!
My favorite line in this is “Our trip to Walmart at 2 AM is a highlight of our week.” As a wife of 10 years, I felt the same thing last week! Congrats and it’s been a pleasure reading your wonderful blog.
Thank you, Alice. Wishing you many decades of happy marriage.
Congratulations to you both! Its so great to see a couple whose been happily married for so long – and one who goes grocery shopping together at 2am!
Rebecca,
It’s unfortunate that long and happy marriages are becoming more and more scarce. Maybe if more couples went grocery shopping together at 2 AM, the trend would improve.
Great tribute to your marriage Lillie. Thank you so much for giving others a glimpse of your happiness. May you have many more years of it. God bless, sweet friend.
Tammy,
Thank you!
How is your marriage book coming along?
Lillie and Jack,
Congrats on reaching an amazing milestone. Looking forward to the Golden and Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
SK,
Thanks for your good wishes and your confidence in our longevity.
The Gold isn’t too far off, but my husband will be over 100 years old for the Platinum.
Happy Anniversary! It sounds like y’all live in a wonderful community. And the love between you and Jack poured out in your words. Hope you celebrated, and I hope you have many more anniversaries and trips.
Thanks, Helen! We had lunch at Mr. & Mrs. G’s–it was great.
Happy Anniversary, Lillie and Jack! Wow Lillie, 44 years! Congrats for reaching that milestone. Let we youth learn something from you!
Kim,
The first big secret is to choose the right partner. Then make a lifetime commitment to each other and enjoy the journey–including trips to the grocery store!
Congrats on the aniversary I just thought I would comment after just readung for the last week or two hopefully I can be a bit more social on here
Thanks, Richard. Hope to see you here often.
thank you
did you do anything special for your 40th?
Gosh, Richard, I can hardly even remember what we did on the 44th, much less than the 40th.
In a time where a divorce is more common than a marriage this anniversary of 44 years is something really to be very proud of. My dearest congratulations!
Thank you, Mark. It’s sad that so many marriages end in divorce.
Dear Lillie, your photos is so cute! All the best for you both, you’re wonderful!
Thank you, Jessica!
Happy Anniversary! It’s so nice to see a couple that had been together for how many years. Hope we can be like that.
Earl,
I hope you are as blessed as we have been for as long as we have been.
[...] Happy 44th Anniversary to Us is a loving tribute to a beautiful marriage and my special husband. [...]
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