This coming June 19, my bride Lorraine and I will celebrate our Golden
Anniversary. Reflectively, I find myself repeating the chorus of one of the countless songs penned to my peerless pearl beyond price:
‘Twas happy the day that I met you,
‘Twas joy on the night I proposed,
But the bliss you have given me since then
Is more than I ever supposed.
‘Tis just one of the bits of adoring doggerel jotted onto yellowed papers shingled thick on the north wall of our home – the spot reserved for such preservations. And that’s what this last half century has been: a matchless gifted bliss requiring no effort beyond our mutual celebration of our own good fortune. All the oceans of ink devoted to the art of diligently forging a good & proper marriage, in our case, simply don’t apply. Lorraine and I stand arms entwined as living proof that loving marriages result from the pure unmitigated luck of stumbling across the right person to begin with…and of course, lots of kisses do help. So instead of boring you with a list of my beloved’s countless perfections, allow me to wish each of you happy hunting, and may you each be as fortunate in whom you stumble across as we have been.
– Bart & Lorraine Jackson