30 Years!

When Doug and I married in our forties, we never dreamed we'd live long enough to celebrate 30 years of marriage. But we did! We celebrated our 30th anniversary on Tuesday.

We've been so busy with our cataract surgeries that we weren't able to get away for any kind of a special celebration. But what we expected to be a very ordinary day turned out to be a very special one.

It happened to be the day of our church's monthly lunch and entertainment outreach to senior adults in the community (PEP). Vicki, one of our friends from church, was providing the musical entertainment for this month's PEP, along with a friend of hers from another church. And two dear friends, Terry and Diane, who live about an hour away, drove up to join us at PEP and to spend the day with us.

Vicki began an introduction to two songs that she said were in recognition of Doug and Linda's 30th anniversary. When she said that, I turned to look at Doug and saw him approaching me with a bouquet of red roses. He had managed to purchase them the day before, bring them to the church, and put them in a cooler to keep them fresh. Then he'd conspired with the pastors and with Vicki for just the right moment to present them to me.

The roses were a big enough surprise, but then Vicki began to sing "My Jesus, I Love Thee," a song that we had requested to be sung at our wedding. Doug had asked Vicki to sing that song at PEP, as another special anniversary surprise for me.

On our first anniversary, Doug had given me roses and a framed copy of the music for "My Jesus, I Love Thee," knowing it had special meaning for me.

Our First Anniversary-1988

Our 30th Anniversary-2017

Denise & Vicki (the musicians), Bonnie, Doug, Me, another Linda, Diane, & Terry

Associate Pastor, Dick B. (on the left) and Senior Pastor, Dave T. (in the middle of the four ladies)

After PEP, Terry and Diane went with us to visit the History Center in Fort Wayne, pictures of which were featured in my last post. I'm including a new picture below, taken from the rear of the building.

The History Center (from the rear)

That awning you can see in the lower right corner of the picture of the History Center is part of a block-long area which is home to a Farmers' Market on Saturdays during the summer.

At the History Center with Terry and Diane

After the History Center, we took Terry and Diane to another nearby community, where there's an observation tower overlooking a very large stone quarry.

At the stone quarry with Terry (Diane took the picture)

Then we had supper at a restaurant in the same community where the stone quarry is located, after which, we returned to our house for dominoes and dessert.

Playing Dominoes (Sorry, no pictures of the dessert)

It wasn't a typical way of celebrating a major anniversary; but, at the end of the day, I couldn't think of anything else I'd rather have done. (Although, when we were at the stone quarry, Diane did suggest that our next stop should be a junkyard. Diane's a funny lady.)