20 years?!

My parents split up when I was about 13 years old.

No big deal. Hardly anybody I know does not have divorced parents. That's kind of sad being the norm, really.

Anyways- that was the previous generation.

My mom started dating some guy named Gordon who she later married. I'm pretty sure I hated him for the first few years. Just because I could focus my teenage angst and unresolved feelings of my parental unit split up on SOMEONE, he was the lucky target.

I wore black to their wedding.

There was one day on my grandmother's farm and I took a photo of them and my mom looked so happy and I realized and saw that Gordon made my mom so happy. I started to see that their marriage was something that was good and it was unfair to feel like it was somehow wrong or a venue for my pent up anger. Things shifted that day when I looked at them in their hand knit sweaters standing on the walkway that led up the farmhouse door, the snow resting on the willow leaves behind them.

I relaxed and decided that I liked Gordon. I like him a lot.

It's a good thing because today is their 20th wedding anniversary.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Gordon.