seven things to know about Joe and Linda on their 56th anniv

AFTER A short week of night shifts, you learn to savor a good night’s sleep.  That’s why even after only 7-8 hours I was drunk with zzz’s this morning, although I had a slight half-memory of an important event today. Sure enough, two of my favorite aunts remembered on Facebook Mom and Dad’s 56th wedding anniversary today. Their love is truly the gold standard, having passed the test of time through so many trials and challenges. So in return for reminding me, here are a few tidbits I’ve culled about my folks here and there : Theirs wasn’t a long courtship.  Then as now, when you saw a good thing, you grabbed it.  My dad saw in mom everything he wanted.  An ideal wife, good mother to his future children, and equally important, someone who would keep him rested and well-fed for life’s many battles ahead.  I don’t have the numbers, but I would be very surprised if Mom and Dad didn’t marry less than a year after meeting for the first time.  How I knew this : simple math, because Mom was a very maidenish 19 years old when she tied the knot, so Dad couldn’t have known her for very long. They originally planned to have a son and a daughter.  Then after Firstborn Son came Son No. 2, Sons Nos. 3 (me), 4 and 5.  THAT WAS ENOUGH, said both of them.  Five sons, though unexpected, have been good for them, as has been their life together.  How I knew this : from Dad and Mom themselves, who must’ve told me at least a few times.  They must’ve thought twice about their decision after a few of the awesome messes we made. There was a seven-year difference in their ages, something that might be considerable now, but not that unusual then.  Men were as always slower to mature than women, so you would naturally expect women to gravitate to older men. As the years pass, the differenced mattered less and less, until it doesn’t matter anymore, as if it ever did.  How I knew this : common sense. Their personalities weren’t a perfect fit, but in most matchups, whose are?  My mother is more the extroverted type, friendly, engaging and gregarious.  My dad is more the ambivert type, picks his friends more carefully.  In other areas, they are the converse of each other, and appear more to complement each other and fill each other’s gaps.  In the end, whose marriage isn’t a combination of the best (and worst) of each other’s good points and bad, thorns and roses? In my 50 years, I have spent roughly half that time with them, and I have only seen them in an argument a grand total of one time. Sure there have been disagreements, quarrels and spats, but I’ve never been witness to them, and they’ve always been sweet and loving, I’m sure not just to the world, but to themselves as well.  Hard to beat. They celebrated with style their 50th wedding anniversary last 2009 with all their children, grandchildren, loved ones and friends in attendance at the Philippine Columbian Association ballroom.  I made it by the skin of my teeth, commuting on a 16-hour flight from Wellington to Manila via Auckland and Sydney, catching the last 45 minutes of the happy occasion. Lastly and not leastly, to this day they still give gifts to each other, sweet and practical, in gestures grand and small.  After all, what is life but the sweetness between the daily grind of routine? Happy wedding anniversary Mom and Dad!  Love you lots and miss you more!