51 Years!

Sheila climbing the front steps of Tallahassee Heights United Methodist Church as my fiancé.
She and I would leave as wife and husband.

Fifty-one years ago today I married my best friend and the love of my life. I am an incredibly lucky man. Our anniversary last year was clouded by sadness at the passing of my Mother, and again this year we are in mourning for a dear family member, my sister Beth who died on August 5. But we know to count our blessings, and there is no greater blessing in my life than Sheila. 

Sheila and I have had an unusual and very emotional anniversary. We are trying to find and scan pictures of Beth. It still just seems unreal that she could be gone. Every picture I find brings, almost simultaneously, sweet memories and a sudden emptiness in the pit of the stomach.

Here is one of those pictures...

Beth on the day we brought Brannon home, with our sister Carol,
Carol's daughter Larisa, and my Grandmother Lillian.

I posted a link on Facebook to my post on the Limb a year ago that shows our "cut-out" posed here and there around the house. As a result we have had anniversary greetings from lots and lots of our old and new friends. 

That "cut-out" now stands near the end of our upstairs hall where is startles me regularly.