It is a giant blessing in one’s life when a young man meets a young woman, and they fall in love, which is what happened with my wife and me.
Often marriage follows sometime after that first date. My marriage to the beautiful young woman I met in high school occurred four years after I treated her to dinner at Steve’s Gay 90s Restaurant & Stage Show Bar back in the early 1960s.
Sadly, some couples suffer divorce later in life even those whose marriage has lasted a long time.
I am still happily married, and we have been a couple for 58 years.
Everyone, upon learning, we met in high school and are still happily married all these years later, always says something like, “Ooooh, you are such a cute couple.”
The question I am just now beginning to confront is, “Has are marriage lasted too long?
The first sign we may have been married too long happened to us just the other day. For years, as I have gotten older, I have managed to drive my wife crazy with questions such as,
- Have you seen my car keys?
- Where is my laptop?
- I can’t find my glasses; can you?
- Do you know where my car is parked? I thought I left it in the garage.
I don’t mean to irritate her, but sometimes things disappear. Even when I try to be methodical about where I leave my everyday personal possessions, they still get lost.
So the other day I scoured the entire house and could not find my tortoiseshell eyeglasses. I looked in every room, and every suspect location a minimum of three times and could not find them.
I hated to do it, but finally, in desperation, I asked my wife, “Have you seen my glasses?” While she was not unpleasant about it, I could read her mind. “Why can’t my husband keep track of his own things? My wife said, “No, I have no idea where your glasses are located.
After giving up and thinking, maybe they fell into the toilet again, I joined my wife in the kitchen as she worked at her counter typing a project on her laptop.
After three double-takes, I worked up the requisite courage to ask her if my eyes were deceiving me?
Ultimately my wife confirmed that my mind was not playing a trick on me. She was wearing my glasses.
She had picked them up from our kitchen table. For years I have placed my glasses on the table or nearby counter when eating. For some reason, I have never been comfortable wearing glasses while eating, especially if I prepared the meal.
She admitted that as she peered through the prescription lenses that had been set for my eyes, her computer screen seemed bent out of shape.
During the entire time, we have lived together as a married couple she has never worn my glasses.
Could this be a sign our marriage has lasted too long? It has got me worried.
I am encouraged that none of the other possible signs our marriage has lasted too long have crept into our relationship.
SIGNS YOUR MARRIAGE MAY BE OVER:
- She slowly changes the address on my motorcycle and gun magazine subscriptions to a new Post Office Box.
- She heads out for choir practice every Tuesday night, which I would not mind, except the choir practices on Thursday.
- When I return home, there are too many dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. When I left in the morning, only my cereal bowl occupied the sink. Upon my return, the sink is full of dirty dishes, and there are T-bone steak scraps.
- A man keeps calling and when I answer a male voice keeps telling me he has the wrong number.
- When I return home, my key no longer fits the lock.
These shaky marriage signs have not happened to us as yet and to prevent them from occurring I have taken a serious action step to preserve our marriage. I spent 98 cents to purchase an eyeglass dangler strap as depicted in my photo below. I will never have to ask her where my glasses are ever again.
If this works, then I plan to purchase a 400’ strap that will reach all the way to our bedroom. The other end will be tied to the bumper of my car. My laptop can be stored in a backpack that I wear everywhere including when I go to bed.
As you can plainly see, I know you have to work at marriage if you want it to last a long time.