Russell, my dad, once said to me, "Your mom is my buddy, my wife, my friend...as well as my life."
They entered into their life together at the age of 17.
Through all the hard times, as well as the good, we five girls never heard them quarrel. Later in our lives, we laughed when we all recalled the same thing
...sometimes things would become very quiet and Mom would look around towards Dad and calmly and without changing her expression, "Russell, June is coming." (It was upon this remembrance that we all came to realize that was Mom's way of telling Dad to straighten up his act before June arrived and we all took off to Grandparents house for a summer vacation.) Dad would grunt and walk out to the barn, "to take care of the animals".
Many many times when we would walk into a room where they were talking, Dad would be sitting close to Mom and looking straight into her face softly talking about who knows what. They never looked up or moved or loss focus of each other at those times and we would all silently acknowledge their 'moment' and walk away without interruption.
This, then, is what 40 years together looks like. Wow!
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