Is there a medal for 42 years of hardship duty, continuous service, and courage in the face of adversity? [View all]

My wife married me 42 years ago today!

She's not an idiot. It wasn't her idea. It was my brother's idea. He invited us to our wedding.

Well, originally he invited us to his wedding, but when I said we'd both be there, he said, well, in that case, why not make it a double wedding? I said it sounded like a cool idea, but I'd half to check with the German half. It takes two to tango, after all. I was in Boston when I was talking to my brother, and my girlfriend was in the Ruhr district of Germany. So, I called her up and said my brother and his girlfriend (she was from Tokyo) were getting married in Washignton, and we were invited. Did she think she could get free then? She said absolutely, she'd be there. Then I told her about his suggestion with the double wedding. She said, "sure, works for me." Not the most romantic of proposals, but after 8 years, it wasn't like it was more than a paperwork formaility for us.

The reception looked like an informal meeting of the UN General Assembly, and the parents' table was the most peaceful ever, even with my atheist parents, my wife's Catholic parents and my brother's Shinto Buddhist in-laws. My parents knew English, French, and some Spanish. My wife's parents knew only German and Pladdütsch, and my sister-in-law's folk spoke only Japanese. Besides the obligatory band hired by my mom and my brother, I played Cletic and Appalachian duets with a fiddle-playing friend from the Netherlands, who also played a Norwegian Wedding March solo. Guests were from all over East Asia, as well as Transylvania, Surinam and Denmark, not to mention exotic places like New York and Massachusetts.

I'll confess that even after eight years, I couldn't believe my luck that a smart, beautiful woman like her saw anything in me--although the simple answer is that maybe she didn't. She is nearsighted, and doesn't like to wear her glasses.