"Mom, we have to sit down and talk about Dad's and your marriage." declared our 17 year old son who had just completed a semester course in sociology in high school. He began enumerating all the reasons this 19 year marriage, at that time, would not survive. He counted off that I had been raised in the city and his Dad on a farm. Jack loved sports (he would watch grass grow if it were competitive) and I was a symphony and drama person. Even our jobs were at odds. Jack, a district office director of P.E., recreation, and outdoor education and I was a high school counselor, The BIGGIE was that I had been 16 and Jack 18 when we married. "There just is not hope," he explained, "that our marriage will work."
What our son and his sociology teacher had left out of the equation was the things in our favor far out-weighed the negatives. Our parents had deep abiding love of God and attended church regularly and demonstrated loving marriages. They also had instilled in us faith. Both of us, even at that young age, knew our Lord and Savior. Of course, there are times, even after 63 years, that we sometimes wonder if this teen marriage will last.
Congratulations Jack and Ginny on your 63 yrs of marriage. Thanks for sharing what truly makes a marriage last. Thanks Elva for posting this as I had the pleasure of working with Jack for several years. After I retired we lost contact with them. It was so good to see their picture and to read of their love and faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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