The Seventeenth Of June

                                           The Seventeenth of June





     Today is June 17, 2015, it's a Wednesday and for most people it bears no meaning in particular.
In fact it is a very special day because forty eight years ago Linda and I said our vows becoming husband and wife.
     This was always a special day for Linda, it ranked as high as her birthday and I was expected to remember it with flowers, kisses and whispers of "I love you". Like many husbands I occasionally forgot, especially in the early years, and would spend many hours apologizing profusely for the oversight. One year it cost me $300 and a day of planting shrubs she had purchased in lieu of the bouquet I should have purchased.
     Forty eight years is a long time yet when you close your eyes and allow the mind to traverse backwards it only takes a few moments, the memories are fleeting but very clear as if they were only yesterday. Forty eight years filled with laughter and tears, joy and hope and love for each other.
     There will be no celebration today, no flowers, no kisses or whispers of "I love you". I can't hold her and bury my face in her hair and smell her essence which is fast becoming a memory, instead I will spend the day with Marie, MJ and Matthew and Linda's sister Vicki and niece Chelsea. I will hold my grandkids close inhaling the essence of her legacy and know that in them Linda lives on, her blood and mine plus that of thier parents pulses thru their bodies and thru the bodies of those to come, in this respect we are together and always will be. I will spend the day in memory because that is all that is left.
     Happy anniversary Sweetheart, I love you and miss you.