Anniversary Celebration

My husband and I have been married for 48 years! We celebrated a day early with red velvet cake (for me) and carrot cake (for him) that we enjoyed a day early because that is when we did a pickup of other items from a store that included a bakery that makes good cakes.

I’m thinking back to the decades of our marriage

We spent the 1st 10 years in Texas. We were both in college – he was full time and I was part time. My career in computer programing was becoming well established. At the end of the 10 years, he had a PhD in Physics and I had a Masters in Mathematics.

Early in the 2nd 10 years we moved to Virginia for his post doc and I went to work for IBM. During the decade we moved to Maryland (after his post doc ended) and had our daughter.

The 3rd decade saw us moving in Maryland to the house we are in now. Our lives were focused on our daughter and our careers…trying to blend everything together at every opportunity. For several years, my work required trips to Colorado once a month. My husband and daughter joined me for before or after the workdays so often that my daughter thought everyone got on an airplane for Colorado frequently – was surprised that she was the only one in her Montessori class with Colorado t-shirts and sweatshirts. Our daughter was old enough to consider putting her on a plane to see her grandparents in Texas by the time 9/11 happened; we delayed that milestone to well into the next decade.

Our careers were important during our 4th decade – but the milestones of our daughter took the fore in our family: driver’s license, high school graduation, Cornell for undergraduate degree, internship at Northern Arizona, beginning graduate school at University of Arizona, marriage. My husband began his glide path to post-career. My last grandparent died. We dealt with some health issues of our own that slowed us down temporarily. I retired in the last year of the decade.

In the past 8 years, I’ve settled into post-career activities including volunteer gigs. My husband continued to work part time for a few years and ramping up of post-career. We both enjoy traveling (birding festivals in particular) until the pandemic stopped that; we’ll pick it back up in a year. Our daughter’s milestones were ones we shared vicariously: PhD in Astrophysics/her husband’s PhD in Biology, post docs at Penn State/University of Pittsburg, tenure track faculty positions at Missouri State University. Our health has been stable, but my sisters and I are partnered to assist our aging parents as they face health-related challenges.

We’re enjoying the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency’s Online Celebration of Cranes right now and are tentatively planning to be at the in-person festival next year to celebrate our 49th anniversary!