Look at us, after 25 years!

Look at us…

After all these years together
Look at us
After all that we’ve been through
Look at us
Still leaning on each other

If you want to see
How true love should be
then just look at us

On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, 25 years ago, Candace and I had dinner together. By the end of December we had decided to marry, which we announced to our families the first Sunday in the new year.

On that long-ago Saturday in November I was visiting my parents for the weekend, and around mid-afternoon I realized that preparations for an evening meal were far more involved than could be justified merely by my presence. Clearly something on a larger scale was in the works. Someone else had to be coming as the guest of honor. When Mother told me they had invited Candace over for the evening, my heart jumped.

Flashback: Neither Mother nor Dad (nor Candace) knew that I had called her apartment to ask her out six months earlier. After hearing her sing early in the summer, I had marveled not only at the smooth, rich clarity of her voice but even more at the thoughtful and articulate reflections with which she introduced the song. I was instantly in love, and just had to meet her. Unfortunately, just as I was returning to Kirksville for the summer, she began spending her weekends in St. Louis where, as her roommate informed me, her father was hospitalized after a farm accident. So I knew I should not complicate her life at that point.

Fast forward a few months later to that Saturday afternoon in November. How surprised I was, then, to hear that my parents had decided we should meet, and took the opportunity to “set us up” when they knew I was coming home for the weekend.

Thank you, Mother and Dad, for your initiative in hosting that November dinner 25 years ago! And thank you, Michael and Rhonda, and LaNita, for playing your part as additional guests and “facilitators” on that occasion! Your efforts worked out better than you probably could have imagined…

Look at you
Still pretty as a picture
look at me
Still crazy over you
Look at us
Still believin’ in forever

Look at us
After all these years together
Look at us
After all that we’ve been through
Look at us
Still leaning on each other

Chances are
We’ll go down in history
When they want to see
How true love should be
They’ll just look at us

Vince Gill, “Look at Us”

Gallery.