4.10.2007

"I DO"

Love Under the Umbrella 2006

On this day fifty-nine years ago my parents were married in Dexter, a small town in central Maine. They planned to go to the coast for a few days but their honeymoon trip was altered by a spring snow storm. Their Model A could not handle the snow so they turned back and stopped at a local market to pick up a few groceries. They went back to their apartment to cook their first meal as husband and wife and both of them say it was one of the best meals they have ever had. With a winter storm warning issued for tonight and tomorrow it looks like they may have the opportunity to be snowed in again.

One of the secrets of their success as a married couple was a conversation my mom had with my dad when they had been married a month. She told my dad that she loved him and would do anything for him if he just asked her. What she left unsaid was that if he told her to do something it was quite likely that she would do exactly the opposite. My dad was a fast learner though he does occasionally snap his fingers and point just to see if it can still get a rise out of her. When it does he gives her a sheepish grin.
My parents have always shared everything; the cooking, cleaning, child rearing, etc. When my mom dusted, my dad vacuumed. When my dad washed the dishes, my mom dried them. They held hands when walking and before seatbelts were invented they cuddled together in the front seat. My friends said they always knew it was my folks in the car because of the silhouette they formed.
We had a rule in our house when I was a teenager that I always knocked on their bedroom door when I got in at night to let them know I was home safe. They don’t know this but sometimes I would gently open the door and peek in at them, curled up together on one side of the large bed. Then I quietly tugged the door closed again before I knocked and whispered, “I’m home.” In my naiveté I thought this was the norm for marriage until I became engaged and paid closer attention to the home life of my friends. When we talked about our future, Buz said he wanted our marriage to be like my folks’ and I happily agreed.
In our adolescent years my brother's friends and mine always wanted to be at our house. I thought they wanted to be around us. As I grew older I realized that our friends wanted to be near our parents as much as us because our home was a warm, loving, safe place to be. Long after we had gone to college, our friends continued to stop by to visit my parents and if they were not home they made a sandwich, grabbed a coke and left a note for my folks saying they were sorry that they had missed them. Nothing pleased my parents more than to come home to a note on the table and carefully rinsed dishes in the sink.
Not much has changed over the years. My parents live close to us here in Wisconsin and though I no longer peek in on them while they are asleep, I often sneak in their front door in the morning to leave treats on the steps for my dad to find when he goes out to get the paper. This morning it will be a scone for mom and a big cinnamon roll for my dad. Since I cannot bring them sunshine and warm weather I will at least bring them flowers. I do know that they still cuddle at night because my dad has jumpy legs and my mom says he kicks her sometimes when he is asleep. And my dad says that my mom loves to talk as they doze off. She not only talks but she asks questions so my dad cannot slip away to sleep without her knowing it. They still hold hands on their walks, my dad loves to vacuum while my mom dusts. ….. and my friends here drop in on my folks not to grab a sandwich but to leave them homemade goodies and flowers.
Everyone who meets them and learns they are my parents stop me later and ask if I know how lucky I am. I smile and say, “Yes.”
Then they say, “No, I mean do you really know how special they are? Do you tell them how much you love them every day?”
I smile again and say, “I do.”

April 10, 1948


3 comments:

  1. What a great story. Thanks for sharing it. You are so fortunate to have such role models as parents.

    Jerry Surprise (friend of Sarah Hall Tucker)

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  2. Vicki,

    What a wondrous tribute to your amazing parents. You are all so truly fortunate to have each other. It is indeed obvious that you know what a gift they are...

    Do you think they would adopt me and my seven siblings?

    You made my day!

    Travis Miller (jtravism on Flickr)

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