I walked down the aisle at the Castleton United Methodist Church that day and made several promises to Chuck and he made several to me. To love and to cherish from this day forward.
Loving a spouse seems easy enough. Loving them the way that they need loved is a learning process.
What is important to me is different from what is important to Chuck. Finding out and following through with how we need to love each other has been important to both of us.
Love at our age looks different than love when we were in our twenties or even our thirties. We respect our differences and embrace the things that we agree upon.
Kindness rules over how we treat each other. Appreciation goes a long way. Laughter is oh so necessary.
Love perseveres when there are raccoons in the attic and all the other trauma of owning a 110-year-old house. My husband moved from a condo in Carmel. He even had to buy a lawnmower.
We both love sports. The Colts. Butler University. Indiana University.
What about high school sports? Oh yes, that gets interesting.
I’ve been a Noblesville Miller my entire life. Black and gold are my colors of choice. Chuck is still a devout Hamilton Southeastern Royal. 17 years as the Superintendent of HSE schools means that he bleeds blue and white.
Recently, while attending donkey basketball at HSE High School, I walked into the gymnasium carrying black and gold seat cushions. Jim Self, the athletic director saw us. Within minutes he arrived where we were sitting in the gym. He handed Chuck new seat cushions…blue and white ones. He said he just could not allow Dr. Leonard to sit on black and gold Miller cushions.
My back side may be sitting on the Royal’s blue cushions but my heart is pure Miller gold.
And so, we promised to love and to cherish each other . . . even when the Millers and Royals play each other in sports.