To have and to hold

I, Anne, take you, Peter, to be my husband,
to have and to hold from this day forward,
for better or for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
to love and to cherish;
from this day forward until death do us part.

This - or something like it - is what my mom said to my dad twenty years ago today. TWENTY YEARS. That is an awfully long time and I had no idea that they’d been married this long until my dad happened to say during dinner tonight, you know, the least you could do is congratulate us, and I was all like, wedding anniversary, right? Because now that he mentioned it, I remembered. And then he got all testy and emphasized, twentieth wedding anniversary.

Yeah so, what’s that?, my brother mumbled dismissively, aluminum foil?

Anyway, I went through some old photo albums to find a nice wedding picture to post when I remembered that my mom and dad never did the whole white wedding at a church thing. I also couldn’t find a very good picture of both of them together. One reason for this is that my mom actually used to be into photography, she took classes at college and knows how to develop pictures in a darkroom and all (not that that’s of any use nowadays). But part of the reason may also be that, from the start, they’ve been her and him and not them.

However, my mom used to beautiful. Beau-ti-ful. Photogenic. Mysterious.

Also, maybe, whistling. And did I mention beautiful?

My dad, in the meantime, was really just a regular guy. Traveling in an orange VW bus across France, camping, listening to rock and raggae, watching birds. Or, possibly, spying on French hookers.

My mom also had a VW - but it was more a Beetle than a bus. I’m also not sure where she was traveling here. But I’m sure there are no hookers around - after all, my dad took this picture and so, apparently, wasn’t distracted at all.

My mom was also really beautiful, in case I hadn’t mentioned, and happened to be modeling like this from time to time.

My dad, au contraire, was basically a regular Beatle from the 60s.

And well, as of today, they’ve been married for exactly twenty years. I guess, CONGRATS are in order. Raise your glasses.