What are the odds? No, not today in the 2015 running of the Kentucky Derby. But what are the odds that Tom and I are just a couple months away from celebrating a life and a love that was united in marriage fifty years ago on June 19, 1965?
Some might say it is a long shot. I might even say that, given some of the challenges we faced. But whatever odds we overcame, we are being rewarded with a magnificent family life. We are enjoying relatively good health and mobility. And if there is a secret to long-term marriage success, I might say for us it is just……that we never fell out of love.
In the Kentucky Derby of 1965, Lucky Debonair was the winner, followed by Dapper Dan in second and Tom Rolfe in third.
Tom’s first job out of college was with IBM in Lexington, Kentucky the heart of the Bluegrass. We began our married life in a furnished apartment (with maid, which I would never tell my mother), moved to a rented duplex awaiting the arrival of our first born daughter, Laura the following June. Then a couple years later, we were settled into our first purchased and built home on Sandra Court and soon after that, we were given the gift of our second daughter, Kathleen.
Ours was the first home, around which grew the most fantastic neighborhood. Neighbors Bob and Carmel, Martha and Joe, and many other surrounding ones made for a vibrant, alive and friendly place for us and our children. We have never been in a neighborhood like that or shared time with others as we did in that one time of our life
Friends, Linda and Tom (our first) and Jude and Lucretia, Dave and Kay, Stan and Sheila were just a short jaunt away. We were rich in friendships, fun and play.
Caroline, friend of Laura and daughter of our Kentucky friends, Jude and Lucretia
We lived in the Bluegrass during the amazing years and feats of Secretariat, the last horse to win the Triple Crown. We walked the grasses of Calumet Farms and other white-fenced horse farms with our friends and visitors from Michigan. It was fun to be part of the Bluegrass pride and traditions.
During our twelve years in Lexington, I taught school for a short while and then became an assistant in the Montessori classroom of Joanie Stickler. It was the start up of what is now an extremely successful Community Montessori School through high school level, one where friend Janet Ashby dedicated many years of loving service to the children and adults being blessed by the Montessori methods of discovery taught by Maria Montessori.
Our life changed “on a dime” in 1976, when we left Lexington in search of a different way of livelihood. For some time to come, it could be best described in a song Neil Diamond would write titled, “It’s a Beautiful Noise!”
Fifty-Fifty is not about the odds on any horse today. In honor of approaching our 50th, I have decided to blog 50 stories over the 50 years of our life together. I have not written Napkinwriter as often this year as I did the first three years, so this will give me a theme to “hang my writer’s hat on”. There are so many MORE than 50 stories (and they are not fairy-tales). It will amuse me anyway to see which I decide to throw some light upon.
I will complete these stories before Tom and I leave, once again, for a honeymoon in the Smoky Mountains in late June.
Napkinwriter 