"In 1960"

These two beautiful people are my Mom and Dad.

My sister and I, during our conversations, have brought up the fact that we think we have very yummy parents. 'Yummy' is a word we use fondly to describe the fact that we think they are the best parents in the entire universe. So many times we have both randomly sighed and asked, "Don't you just love daddy and mom?" On this we agree, they are loving, kind and have poured themselves into our family unit and we have no doubt that we are loved. This is such a good feeling and I am proud to say that I belong to them.

They had a teenage romance before daddy left to serve as a Marine and married when he was through serving in 1960. They have many stories that we girls love to hear over and over, as they are the tales of two lives that represent our coming into existence. They both say that it was "love at first sight" and 46 years later, they are still together, holding their family in the palm of their hands.

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~Mom used to sit outside on her front porch hoping that daddy would drive by in his cool car.

~Daddy gave mom driving lessons when she was 17. She crashed the car and seriously injured her knee, a problem that she still lives with today.

~Mom thought that daddy was a dreamboat and used to play with the dark curl that fell from the front of his hair do.

~They wrote each other while daddy was in the service. That slowly died down and when he came home, he looked mom up right away and asked her to marry him. She was shocked that he still held a torch for her all that time.

~Daddy always knew he was going to marry the French girl. He made up songs about her name and still sings them today.

~Mom says that daddy was a nice dresser and always smelled good.

~On their wedding day, pictures were taken on the lawn and bugs went up mom's dress and got caught in the netting.

~Their wedding was filmed and we have watched it a number of times.

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While none of these stories may seem worthy of any movie or book, they are the stories of two people that I love very much. They are stories that I will never forget, they are foundational to who I am, they are my life while I was still a dream in my parents future. They own these stories and now, I do too. They smile fondly while telling them, I smile fondly, knowing every detail, but nevertheless, love hearing them over and over.

These are stories that I have told my children and one day, will tell my grandchildren.

And then they can own them too.