Follow You Follow Me

In your arms
I feel so safe and so secure

Plans are made, hopes are spoken, dreams are imagined. What no one really knows is what follows the wedding day, how the days and years will unfold, where your lives will be lived, when you will be thrown a curveball.

Instead, what we had was faith. Faith that as long as we are together, we will figure it out, whatever “it” happens.

The “it’ was pronounced in those very early years, when work was tenuous and life marched on. Me driving truck for 6.25 an hour while you finished your undergraduate, our miniscule savings evaporated to repair the Monte Carlo lemon just as we moved to Toronto. Purchasing a “hole-in-sky” condominium with you employed in child-care and me enrolled in the Masters program at York University, seemingly doable and then challenged with a pregnancy discovered a week after being laid off. Me coping with unemployment after Nicholas’ birth, after graduation, schlepping to the overnight shift at the warehouse, turned down repeatedly for jobs, finally landing contract teaching work. You pregnant with Olena, we purchased our first house, mortgaged to the max, permanent work still unattainable. Then when we were finally established, you choosing to cut back, changing direction, for the family, for their future,

And through “it” all, we grew, along with our children, relishing the simple pleasures, enjoying each other and the kids and managing the realities of family life, immediate and extended. Leading by example, learning from the experiences, loving unconditionally. The degrees, the houses, the careers, all accomplished because of our belief in ourselves and in each other.

And on this day, 39 years later, we can smile.

Happy Anniversary Olga.

Love always,

Everyday is such a perfect day to spend
Alone with you

I will follow you will you follow me
All the days and nights that we know will be
I will stay with you will you stay with me
Just one single tear in each passing year