Dementia for 2

Today is my 18th wedding anniversary. I can't believe I am still with the same man after all these years. To be sure it has been very trying at times for both of us. We have really put each other through the wringer.

But today we are celebrating the fact that we are still beating the odds. I thought I would post some of my more memorable moments that I think of when the thrill is on vacation.

There was the time my daughter B wanted a Barbie car for Christmas. She was about 4 or 5 and she never asked for anything. Not before that and not really since. Barbie cars were really hot then and we searched high and low to no avail. We knew a girl that worked at Wal Mart and there was one car at her store. It was in the back because the box was damaged. She saved if for us and Doug waited in line with this car for hours. Even had some guy offer him 200.00 for it. Doug told him if he came home without that car he was more than dead meat. We had only been married about 3 years and this was a very big deal to me.

Then there was the time he fixed me a reading space for Valentine's Day. He didn't like me isolating myself to read, so he created a space for me that was in the front of the house but still quiet enough for me to read.

When my son decided things were greener away from home at the age of 16, Doug backed me up on every decision I made. He helped me to track him down, talked with the police, sat in court with me and gave me advice that everyone else was afraid to give me.

My most touching memory has to be this last one. We were separated and not for the last time, Doug wanted to get back together. This was a bad separation and I just was not sure that we could go on as a couple. We discussed some of the major reasons we were apart. I told him that I just didn't know if I still loved him. His words to me were, "That's okay. I can love you enough for both of us." That was the clincher for me. He was willing to be with me knowing that I may never trust him again. Knowing that I may never believe another word he ever spoke to me again. Knowing that I may always question if not aloud at least to myself, every move he made.

We have come a long way since then. We still have our issues to be sure, but we are always looking more for the compromise than the all or nothing. I think I will keep him a while longer.