What A Babe

Just when I think that I am a burden, I say something that makes my sweetheart laugh out loud, and I never heard her laugh out loud, not ever.

She had this "tee hee" thing she did when we were in high school, and occasionally she would give me this look and shake her head, but making her laugh out loud is fun. I live for that.

It happens at a movie, when the theater is quiet, and something strikes my bizarre sense of humor as funny when no one else seems to understand. In The Bucket List, no one knows the real deal about chemo therapy, unless you have experienced what Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman portrayed. At laughed myself sick.

And there are other times too, when one of us says or does something that is funny. After 34 years of marriage, it is a great thing to experience. I remember how quiet the first few meals were when we sat together as newly weds. I worried when I ran out of things to talk about very early, and since it only rains once or twice a summer in Snowville, Utah, the weather was not an option. Sir Francis Bacon once said something like this, "Wives are: young men's mistresses, middle-aged men's companions, and old men's nurses." The quote might be more of a paraphrase than a direct quote, but I do know this, my Annie is my sweetheart, my best friend, and yes, she is my nurse too.

Ten or fifteen years ago, this young teacher was bragging about his snow machines and toys, and I remember his saying that marriage was not an option for him, until he enjoyed life first. He was in his late twenties or early thirties at the time. I told him that I married when I was 21. He looked at me with wild eyes for a moment, wondering why I would make such a sacrifice. And then I told him my only regret: not marrying her sooner than I did. I still feel that way. But it is also important to realize that I married my sweetheart about four months after returning from my mission in Germany.