The Answer to Everything

When we were young

Today I have been married to my husband for 42 years.

That means, according to Douglas Adams in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, we now know the answer to everything.

I asked my husband at lunch if he felt like he knew the answer to everything, as we sit here, two old folks, preparing to move on to the next phase of our lives.

He said he did not.

But what he did say was that he remembers that we have endured a flood, a blizzard, many surgeries for both of us, his accident with the hay baler, a car wreck, building our own house, infertility, both of us working diligently at our jobs, and our marriage. 

We may not have the answer to everything in the universe, but we have a long history together that shows a constancy of endurance that not everyone gets to experience.

Sharing a life with one person for so many years is a humbling - and wonderful - experience.

So, here's to us. I'd be 104 if we make it another 42 years, and I don't expect to live that long, but if it is to be so, may we continue to hold hands while we watch TV.

And now we're older