Love in the Time of COVID

Friday was  June 19.  It is celebrated as Juneteenth, the end of slavery in the United States.  But for me, it had another meaning as well:  it was our 50th wedding anniversary.  Many said we’d never make it, because we were truly children of the sixties with all that implies.  We proved the naysayers wrong.  Has it been all sunshine and roses?  Of course not; but it produced two wonderful children who have given us four precious grandchildren.  And it has given us beautiful, enduring memories. 

This milestone in our lives and marriage should have been marked by at least a big party and some family fanfare.  We even planned to take a big trip, perhaps to Tennessee to see the full-size replica of Noah’s Ark; but alas, there is COVID.  All plans had to be scuttled, postponed for some future time when to celebrate with traditional rituals will not be life threatening. 

Yet rituals and the marking of passages are very important things.  Fifty years together, weathering the challenges of life that jolt us out of the fantasies of youth, is no small feat.  So how did we mark this particular passage?  Very simply, actually.  We prepared a breakfast feast; my husband adorned the table with roses and gardenias from the garden; we exchanged cards and memories.  I had hoped to sit on the deck under the awning in the rain that came with the evening—we had done so one July Fourth  (there is a poem about that evening in “The River Running Through Him”). But the lightning and thunder prevented that also.  So we prepared another wonderful meal and feasted again.

On Sunday, Father’s Day, we met our son and his wife and younger son for a breakfast picnic in Morrow Mountain State Park.  The nineteenth was their wedding anniversary, too.  We again had a breakfast feast and exchanged cards and took a stroll along one of the trails.  It was a special time of being together, masked and as socially distanced as possible, during a time in which we have not been able to see each other often.

So were these activities sufficient to mark such a momentous time in our life together?  I am going to say yes.  Sometimes simple things can bring the most meaning and pleasure.  The big take-away is that we lived and loved for 50 years together! There is no party or trip that could make that any more wonderful or meaningful.  There is no disease or pandemic that can take away the joy of that.  We marked this passage on our journey, and we look forward to the next part of our life together, for however long that is.