Both of them would turn 19 in May following their marriage, they were virtually married their whole lives. Most people don't even live as long as they were married.
When we threw a 50th Anniversary party for them, I jokingly asked Mom if she was ready to trade Dad in on a new model. She laughed and said,''Naw, I'll keep him, besides I just got him trained like I want him''.
They were married for 26 years before they adopted me, but in the years before I was born several kids from the area stayed with them to finish school when parents were moving or some crisis occurred in the middle of the school year and they wanted to stay to finish it out. Many of their nieces and nephews stayed with them, a couple until they were grown, both before and after I was born. They counted up one time that 29 kids, other than me, had lived with them through the years.
That is a permanence few people know in their lives, a bond, a pledge that is almost unheard of these days. I am sure that in the ebb and flow of life, there were some stormy seas for them, having gone through the Great Depression was challenge enough to break many people. They had nothing but a car when they got married, and yet they were happy together. Family and friends gave them things and they both worked hard, long past the time when most people have retired. They were never rich in earthly goods or money, but they were comfortable, and the best thing was that they loved what they were doing, and they did that together.
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