34 years, mercy!!! Well if you think I’m going to write about marrying my best friend, being in love every day of the past 12,411 days and other mushy things…… well you might as well stop reading now. Our marriage and life falls way short of being a fairy tale. Fairy Tales are found in book not in real life, or at least not in this real life. We are two imperfect people, who somehow managed to create a great life and nearly 3 ½ decades of memories. In spite of the many ways we tried to mess it up, we are together and determined to grow old, OK older, together. My guess is if you asked many of those attending our wedding 34 years ago tonight, they might not have been overly confident we would be celebrating today. The saying “opposites attract” is certainly true of Larry and I. We are so opposite in so many ways, yet we are exactly alike in others. Our childhoods were completely different. So was our teen years and into our early twenties. When we met I was a broken young lady, who was living out the Alabama song “Lady Down on Love”. My heart had been broken and I was sure it would remain that way forever. I was trying to be a single mom and trying to figure out how to make it on my own, and everyday I felt like a failure. I was struggling in so many ways. Most days I felt like I was drowning. At the same time about 15 miles away Larry was still living at home, had a great job, a new truck and lots of “toys”, he was enjoying the place he was in. I cried myself to sleep most nights while he cruised Kearney Street and stayed out too late. Well the first Friday night of December 1981, my sister, Becky, would not let me sit and feel sorry for myself and she convinced me to go cruising with her. I made it perfectly clear I did not want to go, but she insisted. I was so out of my comfort zone. I was terrified and so wanted to go home. I focused on trying to go unnoticed, which was hard to do driving around in a bright green TR7 sports car. There we sit minding our own business, as I watch the clock for time to go home. Then a nice white truck backed in beside us at Burger King. Two guys were in it and they asked if we wanted to go cruising with them. I was ready to run the other way and about choked when I heard Becky say sure, Let’s Go!!! I know I looked at her like she had four heads. Well that turned out to just be the beginning. The next night against my better judgement and with lost of protesting, we went back and saw them again and then again and again. I was still so scared, terrified of being hurt again and convinced no one would really be interest in me and my being a “packaged deal”. I honestly considered myself damaged goods that no one would want. Well Larry Lay was there to show me differently and help me overcome my fears. Would I admit now that we totally moved too fast, certainly, without a doubt. We met in early December, broke up in mid March, was engaged in early May and married in mid September. That was 1982. Wow 12,411 days ago. Those days have been filled with so many things, both amazing and awful. Yes I said awful! I say we have been married 34 years but we are still trying to decide how many years we have been happily married. Over the years we have changed. We wear different size jeans. Some of our hair is a different color. Our family photo includes more than 3. Some of the changes have been for the good, some for the not so good. There have been times Larry has said, he would love to have the girl he married back. Oh not me, I never want to be that broken young lady again. My past hurts and the things I went through (some are still secrets) I would never want to relive. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER. Yet as hard as those times were, they were molding me. Yes they harden me and I’m sorry about that, but I still can’t change it, nor would I. Those sorrows were fingers in the clay that has made me who I am today. Over the past 34 years we have made so many memories and only a few would I wish to forget. Even after 34 years together, we are still completely opposite. Larry is a homebody, I’m always ready to go. Larry would eat anything that doesn’t eat him first, I’m very picky. Larry is a unsweet tea kinda guy, for me the sweeter and more southern the better. Larry loves to sit on the couch and watch TV. I need to be busy. Larry likes to go to bed early and I’m a night owl. Larry needs lots of sleep, give me 6 hours and I’m ready to go. Larry takes forever to get ready of a morning, give me 20 minutes and let’s go. For Larry the taller the vehicle the better, I don’t like needing a ladder to go for a drive. Larry’s idea of fun is climbing rocks with a vehicle, for me I prefer the mall or a flea market. I love DIY, Larry loves to roll his eyes at my “projects”. Well you get the idea, the list could go on and on. Over the past nearly 3 ½ decades we have been a fire chief, a PTA President (more than once), a board member, a Relay organizer, Sunday School teachers, Little League and Quarterback Club Presidents, homeroom mom, Mighty Mite, Little League and Boys Club basketball coaches, committee members, newspaper editor, supervisor, and activities chairmen. We have worked hard to make the world around us a better place. Sometimes we have done these things at the expense of each other. We have held one another and cried as we buried our parents (it’s still hard to think it was mine first) and my sister. We have prayed for one another and wondered if they would be able to stand up to the pain again. We have stood by each other as our home became quieter and quieter. We have faced the fear of an empty nest. One of us has done it much better than the other. We have proudly watched as our children received diplomas, have fallen in love and exchanged wedding rings. We smiled ( and cried just a bit) as our girls received new last names and our son gave a special young lady his. We have smiled and celebrated as each new grandbaby was laid in our arms. We have fallen in love with the amazing children of our children. We have done life together and without a doubt the most amazing of amazing things we have done is our family. Above the family pictures in our living room is a large plaque that says ALL BECAUSE TWO PEOPLE FELL IN LOVE and that is so true. Love created the most amazing family and the most amazing life. A perfect life, oh heavens no. We have wiped each other’s tears and we have made each other cry. We have worked together and we have pulled against each other. We have shared and we have hidden feelings. We have had one another’s back and we have thrown each other under the bus. We have loved each other and we have really not liked one another. We have enjoyed happiness and we have thought we would never be happy again. We have been an example for our kids, examples of both what to do and exactly what not to do. ‘People always say they would do it all again, and most days I would. I’m thankful on those other days, God has worked in our hearts and lives and taught us how to stick with it when we didn’t want to. One the days I wanted to run away and run fast, God was there to say “Be Still.” Some days I think we are still together because we are both so stubborn. (see there is a way we are alike) The Captain and Tennill ( yep, I’m that old ) proclaimed: LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER. The words didn’t work for them, but they do for us. God’s love, our families love, and our love for God , our love for our family and our love for one another has kept and I pray will continue to keep us together. Over the past 34 years there has certainly been more good than not good. God has blessed us with a great life, even when we were determined to mess it up. We breezed through raising 3 amazing kids, who are now amazing adults. God blessed our kids with amazing spouses and now amazing children of their own. Being Mimi and PaPa is one of the things we agree on and we both think it’s completely amazing!! One of us is content being the fun one and one the boring one!! One of us is happy to make fun plans and the other is be thrilled to tag along and help make memories. As the days move forward, one of us will continue to rub on face creams and pay to keep a certain hair color away and the other will be ok with looking older. We will accept the fact that some days it is just best for us to watch TV in separate rooms and be quite. We will also accept the reality of neither one of us wanting the responsibility of picking where we go for dinner. Today we will say Happy Anniversary for the 34th time and will smile as we think about the things this year will bring. It may be more days of telling the other one they need to pull the hair out of their ears. And it may be more days of wishing the girl he married would come back, but regardless it will be a year we will treasure and look back on with fond memories when we celebrate a year from now.