Marriage: It's Really Hard

My husband and I recently sat together over a glass of wine and took stock – we’re rounding third and headed for home on the mortgage; we’re proud parents of one successful college student and his younger sisters, all of whom dream big, just like we taught ‘em; we’ve both managed to stay gainfully employed through this Great Recession. Then we chuckled at how we’ve lived a wonderful life together, but one completely different than what we imagined twenty years ago this week when we said “I do.”

Nobody told us “in sickness and in health” doesn’t just apply to the bride and groom – it’s a catch-all phrase for the stress put on a marriage when nursing elderly parents through cancer (and ultimately losing one of them to the disease) and for the enormous drain on family resources caused by a child’s chronic medical condition.

Our son’s health challenges were no small part of our life together gone off script. Thankfully, our marriage survived, strengthened in fact, through the adversity. What doesn’t kill you, as they say, makes you stronger.

And so with hard work and lots of grace, we’ve survived and thrived.

Happy anniversary, honey.