Wedding Anniversary Celebration

Forty-five years ago this past Sunday, Patti Johnson and Dean Diehl got married during one of the most humid days of that Northeastern Missouri summer. 

Who likes to sweat when you want everything to look perfect? So we didn’t celebrate that memory.

Dean got ready to go to church last Sunday morning and just felt so tired he said, “I don’t think I want to try to get out today.” (That was a “little did we know” situation since he was back in the hospital with pneumonia  by the next Wednesday.)

That wasn’t a celebration moment either.

By that time I was running even later than usual so I pushed the button for the garage door opener, heard it raise, got in my Trooper, backed up—and Crash!!  The garaged door had malfunctioned again, raising only high enough to catch the edge of my roof.

With the sound of  screeching metal, I drove the only direction that seemed feasible—forward. And of course, the door refused to move either up or down—after all, it was injured!

My exhausted hubby wanted to know what all the ruckus was about and decided he could work some magic with the electric-eye box on the garage ceiling if I would put the stepladder in place. I held on to his waistband as he shakily climbed up two steps on the ladder and decided where he needed to hike the power. After seeing him safely settled on his step, I went to the opposite wall and pushed the opener-button in hopes that the door would open so that I could get my vehicle out.

With great groaning and clankings, it did so. I helped Dean off the ladder and back into his easy chair and I drove off to church thinking, “I REALLY want to cry, Lord. Please don’t let me cry. It’s not a pretty sight to see old ladies cry.”

The Lord was gracious. No tears and I even managed to worship which was why I was at church in the first place. But I have to say, that whole episode was not in any way a celebration.

Lunch time came and our celebratory meal was a grilled cheese sandwich for me (my favorite meal item on “cheat day”) and Ramen for Dean because his mouth and tongue had still not healed up from the last chemo treatment.

Not an especially celebratory menu BUT the salivating part came with the rhubarb pie I made using some of the wonderful fruit my friend, Allison, had given me. Now Dean loves rhubarb pie and despite the great pain in his mouth, he ate two pieces of that pie!                   

The actual celebration of our 45 years together cameas we realized that last year at this time, we didn’t know whether there would be an anniversary to celebrate. Dean started his first chemo treatment about this time last year and the doctor wasn’t very optimistic.

“It’s a fast-growing cancer,” he said. By July and CT scan time, the cancer gurus were beginning to wonder if they had mis-read the biopsy results. And here we are, together today. Thank you, Lord. That’s something to celebrate!