Milestone

Tomorrow, (March 23), is my lovely spouse's 60 birthday. We had our first date in May of 1968, when she was 16 years old. I've actually watched her grow up.
We dated for a few years but then drifted apart in the early 1970's while I was away in the Army. 
We were young and both needed some space.
When I returned, she'd just graduated from the Art Institute in Atlanta, and she was back in town. 
We soon began dating, and on May 5, 1974, we were married by a family friend who was a preacher. 
He lived in a mobile home in Brewton, Alabama, not far from the beach. He did the ceremony on his front porch. 
His wife, who'd never taken a picture with a "real" camera, did her best to capture the moment, but none of them were printable.
Life is a funny business, and age is not just about years here on earth. I've known 15 year-olds that seemed older than the pyramids, and Jilda, who in a few hours will enter her sixth decade of life, could have been the inspiration for the Bob Dylan classic song, Forever Young.
I guess Honest Abe said it best: 
"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count, 
It's the life in your years."
Truer words have never been spoken, Abe.


Happy Birthday Jilda.