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Wow.
Eighteen years.
Tomorrow marks the eighteenth anniversary of my marriage to Mr. Twistie.
Where the heck did all those years go? I don’t know. All I know is that I wouldn’t have spent them with anyone else on a bet.
The funny things is, I don’t even really remember meeting Mr. Twistie. I remember the day, and I remember that I did meet him. But the actual meeting… not so much. I know he was one of about a dozen people I was introduced to at the archery booth at Renaissance Faire that hot August afternoon, but the people? I didn’t pay that much attention. I was there to see a high school buddy, and I didn’t really figure on meeting these people again except, perhaps, in the course of Faire revelry.
Little did I know that these people would become some of the most important people in my life for decades to come. Little did I know that as I hung out trading Monty Python quotes with Michelle that the drunk leaning against a post was developing a little crush on me. If someone had told me that day that there leaned the man I would one day marry… I would never have stopped laughing.
Sometimes you just don’t have a clue.
After all, eighteen years ago tomorrow, I woke early, ate a good breakfast, put on my wedding gown and put together a last-nanosecond headpiece, got my picture taken a whole lot, and said ‘I do’ with joy, pride, and confidence. I spent the rest of the day laughing and dancing and talking with my friends.
The high school friend wasn’t there. She’d drifted out of my life several years earlier. I still miss her now and again, but our lives happened to diverge about the time I really noticed that guy who had been just another Faire drunk a few years earlier.
Michelle, I have no idea where you are now or what you’re up to, but I just want to thank you. Neither of us had any idea that day back in 1980 that you introduced me to the love of my life. You did.
Since the day we married, we’ve been tested in all sorts of ways, but our marriage remains strong. I know in my heart of hearts that if the clock suddenly turned back eighteen years and I woke up tomorrow to find it was my wedding day again, I would speak those same vows with every bit as much joy, pride, and confidence as I said them then.
Mr. Twistie, my beloved, thank you for all these years. Here’s to the next eighteen… and beyond.