50 years of magic!

This Sunday, September 29th, my wife and I will celebrate 50 years of marriage. We’ve known each other for about 5 years longer than that having met in the Commonwealth Bank at Waverley in Sydney in 1964.

We’re celebrating the occasion by taking a two week cruise to New Zealand next week, something we’ve never done before, in fact for the first time in our lives, we’ve both got passports, it’s all very exciting.

Being married that long is regarded as quite a milestone in this day and age, but speaking for myself, I don’t even think about it or feel the time factor, being married to my beautiful wife Jackie all that time has just been a truly magic experience. We’re just best mates, always have been, always will be, put simply we just love each other.

Of course, I’m as biased as anyone could be, but I couldn’t imagine feeling the way I do about anyone else in the same way as I feel about Jack. That may sound pretty predictable but if you knew just how different we are, you’d probably be amazed that we’ve stayed together that long and still get on so well. Like all couples we’ve had some pretty savage disagreements, by savage I don’t mean physical just noisy and sometimes very animated “conversations”. At such times, and in the heat of battle, silly thoughts go through your mind and you wonder if you’ll ever recover from these confrontations. For some reason, you always do and more often than not, the making up process can become the highlight. Once, when disagreements like this happened, we might not talk to each other for hours, sometimes a day or two. That’s ridiculous! Now it’s a race to see who makes up first and often, we can be violently yelling at each other one minute and soon after, making jokes about how stupid we were. I’m pleased to report however, that such confrontations are very rare these days and part of the reason is probably like most husbands I’ve learned a few facts of life that I find helpful.

For example, despite my always being right, we always do things Jackie’s way. I’ve also trained myself to never want to go to the kitchen or bathroom straight after she’s mopped the floor. Jackie is also the typical wife, mother and grandmother, always putting others before herself. That is, except when it come to prawns and leg ham. These are probably the only two things where she insists on getting her fair share. Chocolate would probably also come into this group, but thankfully I’m not into chocolate so it’s never an issue.

I’ve also learnt that Jackie has a different comfort zone to me. For example, if I’m driving and sitting 100 metres behind the car in front, I’m too close and often get told. When she’s driving, she’s happy to be that close to the car in front that I can sometimes feel I can reach out and touch it, but that’s OK?

All jokes aside, I love my wife deeply and she loves me the same. It’s how it’s meant to be, I’m sure. Those who know me will also be well be aware of my standard answer whenever I’m asked, “How are you?” I say, “Jackie still loves me, life is good!” They may put that on my gravestone.