Page 45 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2018- Online Magazine

festivities and narrowly avoiding family. It was the way that my
each other, Mom and Dad finally
acquiesced on the day of the
wedding. Before Dad left Spokane
to head home, the two decided
to write letters. Letters and two
visits; that was the entirety of their
courtship. Within a year, they were
married.
As romantic-comedy-worthy as
their meet-cute and blossoming
relationship was, that has always
been the least compelling part of
their marriage to me. The magic
of my parent’s partnership was in
the small daily choices they made.
It was the little things that, over
time, amounted to a shared history
and trust. It was the way my dad
would point out how Mom stood
at the kitchen sink with one foot
propped on her opposite leg like
a ballerina. Then, with no trace of
sarcasm or mockery, he would say,
“Look at the way she stands to do
the dishes. She’s so graceful.”
It was the way my mom nursed
Dad’s grandparents during their
earliest years of marriage. She
went by every day to take care
of them, making his family her
dad, after making an offhanded
and dismissive remark would
follow Mom into the next room
and apologize in whispered
humility. It was the way my mom
never treated Dad like a child who
would be lost without her. At a
time when many women were
attempting to assert themselves
after years of suppression, Mom
never made Dad feel small in
order to level
the playing my mom makes sure that we never
field. It was let the tomatoes and bell peppers
the way my spoil on the vine. Any extra love
dad let Mom we have to give, she eagerly
spend herself extends to those without family or
on others but, friends. Now that I’ve moved away
from time to and am on the outside looking
time, gently in, their partnership astounds
reminded her me. Their love isn’t a drama. It’s
to stop - stop not a series of drastic measures
and rest and tied together to make a life. It’s
love herself steady. It’s constant. It’s deciding
well. It was every day that life has more to
the way my offer than what one person can
mom patiently waited, for years dream up alone. I think a lot about
and years, for my dad to see how the impact that kind of love can
much he could contribute to those have. That kind of love spans
around him just by being himself. generations.
Throughout their life together, the
two have made space to operate in
their fullest individual capacities.
In doing so,
they have
balanced
each other
beautifully.
My dad
focuses his
energy on
tending to
our family,
like it’s a
vegetable
garden. And
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