Music : I Will

My Tribute To Our Love!

Joe in 1956                             Jan in 1961

    I met Joe in 1976 while we were both working for a furniture manufacturer. He was an upholsterer, and I was a quality control inspector. After flirting a bit, I discovered that it was easy for me to spend a few minutes a day with him simply by finding something wrong on one of the davenports he upholstered, (even if I had to create a fault), and talking to him while he "repaired" the dav. I never knew then just what a treasure I'd found!
    The first time Joe asked me out, he said, "So, whatcha doin' tonight?"
    I replied with a very nervous, "I don't know..."
    When he came back with, "Well, if you don't know, who does?" I thought I'd blown it!! But I didn't. He asked me out to a local nightclub and I said yes!!!!!!


    Those of you who never made any stupid mistakes when they were young should now leave the room! LOL!!!

    Does the course of "true love" ever run smooth? Nope! And it didn't with us either! After seeing each other for a year, we decided to get a place together. We were both shy of marriage. I'd been there once and it was a disaster, and he'd seen many disasters, so we thought we were playing it cool!
    Despite being on the pill, I found myself "in the family way". Joe asked if I wanted to get married, and I said NO!!! I'd been at the place where you think you must marry because of a pregnancy, and I wasn't gonna do that again! If I ever married again, I wanted it to be because we WANTED to, not because of some outdated notion that we HAD to!
    So, our son was 5 months old, to the day, when we said our "I Do's". But at least we were ready, and willing to get married!

Together in 1979

    We've both done a lot of growing up throughout the years, and we've learned what it takes to make a marriage work! Yes, WORK, that's what it takes! Giving in when you don't want to, never giving up, never arguing over anything that is not of vital importance, and never arguing over anything that is vitally important, simply WORKING things out!

    We've been married now for 25 years, and the reason is love! I have counceled my children that the most important thing they can do to make their marriages work is to remember that love, like everything else, changes. The honeymoon doesn't last forever! But if you hang on through the rough times, the love gets better and better!!! Yeah, sometimes you may feel like you don't love your spouse; in fact, you may not even LIKE them sometimes, but ride it out, get over it, Love through it, and before you know it, there it is again! That wonderful rush when you hold each other!
    Is it the same as that first rush? Probably not. Now that you know each other better, have been through thick & thin, it's better than that first rush!
    So how do you make a marriage work? Yep!


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I want to thank Pat for these graphics!