To Have and to Hold

Hello bloggerettes. I love a good Love Story, don't you? 
Today I am joining Betty Jean's romantic To Have and To Hold Love Story Linky Party Marathon at Shabby Tea Party. Thank you Betty Jean for hosting.

Some of you may have read my Love Story before but I thought I would share it once again and what a better time to share it than on the anniversary of our very first date, February 9th.

Love is when you look into someone's eyes and see everything you need.

Let's go back a few years to a time when record hops were still the place to go on a Saturday afternoon.

Picture if you will, a shy young man sporting a Beatle haircut and an even shyer young lady with long hair and bangs, wearing a mini skirt, fishnet stockings, and high boots. Yes, I liked to dress in the latest fashion and I still do!

He was painfully shy but when he finally got up the nerve to ask me to dance, it was love at first sight! We were both seventeen.

He asked me to dance three weeks in a row and then that third Saturday after the record hop, he followed my friends and me into the restaurant where we always went for a bite to eat before the long walk home. Not much wonder we were all so fit and trim!  We danced all afternoon and then walked three miles home afterwards.

He sat on the far side of the restaurant all by himself and then he got up and put some money into the jukebox. He played three of my favourite songs! Coincidence? I don't think so!
One of those songs was my absolute favourite, "Words" by the Bee Gees. He didn't know it was my favourite, it just happened to be his too! 

My friends talked me into joining him at his table, where he and I sat and talked before he walked me the three miles home. Halfway home, he took me by the hand, and 'it was magic!'
And the rest as they say, is history!

Love isn't love until you give it away. ~ Michael W. Smith

A month after our first dance, we went on our first date. 

These pictures were taken on our first date. Before meeting at Eatons department store, he had gone to Zellers to get his picture taken. Do you remember those photo cubicles? He asked me to get mine taken too, which I did.
Isn't he adorable? He's even cuter today; lucky me!

A month after our first date, he asked me to "go steady."
Four years later, in spite of the objections of some family members, we got married. Thankfully, after some time, those family members realized we were meant for each other and accepted our marriage.

"...For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God." ~ Ruth 1:16


"Words" by the way, is our song.

Three children and five grandchildren later, we are still sweethearts and we cannot imagine life without each other. 

Come May, we will be celebrating our 40th Anniversary.


What's our secret? We spend time together, we pray together, and we laugh a lot. We are best friends and always have been.
We are very thankful for what we have and we feel we are very blessed! 

Love is something you can't describe like the look of a rose, the smell of the rain, or the feeling of forever. ~

Above the refrigerator, I have a little vignette which has a sign hanging on it that reads, "The family that prays together, stays together." That's us. You could say we're a match made in heaven!

Happy Valentines Day!