Yeah, yeah!!!!  It’s our anniversary day… March 14!

Gary Chapman writes in The Five Love Languages (1992,1995), “Life is driven by the desire for success. We want our lives to count for something. We have our own idea of what it means to be significant, and we work hard to reach our goals. Feeling loved by a spouse enhances our sense of significance. We reason, ‘if someone loves me, I must have significance'”. (This blog post is also in the written description in the YouTube channel video with this same title. Posted last night at midnight!  You can find it here. I would love for you to like and subscribe to our channel.)

Tom wrote this poem for our 50th anniversary in 2014. I want to share it here; my notes are in italics.

Golden memories…

A strand of fifty years woven together into an unbreakable chain–holding my heart in yours!

November 17, 1962— the beginning of an adventure … this was our first date.

Beyond imagination—a journey of a million miles—so many breath taking moments

Shared in anticipation of “something wonderful around the next corner” … this has always been my expectation.

No disappointments–some setbacks, but always the resilience of your optimism.

A friendship forged in the furnace of commitment and hammered out on the anvil of devotion.

You remain constant–the Pole Star to guide me from the long night of youthful transition to manhood.

My diamond– never lost! More brilliant than ever…  the prongs of my first solitaire came loose and the diamond was lost! I had worn it only four years; I have never had another.

How can I condense fifty years to a page! It would take volumes to contain the love affair I have shared with you this half century.

The joys of “growing old together” where the “best is yet to be”— Tom gave us two hard rock maple rocking chairs for Christmas in 1977… they were setting by the fireplace on Christmas morning with big red bows and a note that said, “Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be”… we live in that anticipation still!! 

A summer of years in Europe that changed us forever.

Children with children of their own– the crown of our coronation.

Walking together, facing the sunset– aglow with the prospects of an inseparable future.

How can I say I love you with words? I stammer and falter because my tongue cannot express the depths of my heart.

I found this symbol—a heart of gold enshrined in a larger silver heart. It represents to me our relationship– my heart captured by yours! I know you will wear it with devotion as it symbolizes to our children and grandchildren that when two hearts beat as one—

anything is possible!… Tom

Being loved and known by another brings significance, self worth and security to each one of us; these are basic needs .

The success of our 61 years is a result of … books read and studied, time given to the work of our marriage, conversations, conversations, heart conversations!, conflicts worked through, forgiveness given, lessons learned and unlearned! and, as in all relationships,  tears shed.                  I want 61 more years with Tom Suiter!

Verses that demonstrate how to love your spouse:

Deuteronomy 24:5— one of my favorites!                                                                                    Ecclesiastes 9:9                                                                                                                                          Proverbs 5:18                                                                                                                          Ephesians 5:25, 31,33                                                                                                                              John 3:16