Happy Birthday to Jilda

Today is Jilda's 55 birthday. It hardly seems possible. We met when she was in junior high and all of fourteen. She was playing a character in a history play/project for her history teacher Yerby Oxford.
She was as thin as a pencil with long blonde hair. A year or so later, she went to Dora High where I was a senior and she was in the tenth grade. I had been dating her best friend, but just before graduation, we broke up and I asked Jilda to be my date at the graduation ceremony. She agreed so our first date was May 20th 1968.
We dated until 1971 when I was drafted so we broke up while I was away in service and while she went to college.
Soon after I returned in 73, we started dating again and we married May 5th 1974. We sort of grew up together. We lived in a single wide mobile home for ten years before we could afford to build our house. Some of the most amazing parties we ever threw were in that trailer.....orange shag carpet and all.
We moved on the farm in 1980 and have lived here ever since. I know there have been times she could have killed me and hid my body in a nearby strip pit. Even if she'd gotten caught, she would most likely have been acquitted by a jury of her peers, but we have had fun through the years.
The phone started ringing before we'd finished our coffee this morning. Friends and family calling to wish Jilda a happy birthday. She's gotten calls from well wishers from all over the country. We did go to lunch with some friends and when we returned we went for a long leisurely walk. I know those younger might fail to see the allure of such a day, but it's what she wanted and on her 55th birthday, that's all that matters to me.