Anniversary 

It was six months before her twenty-second birthday.
I was nearly forty. So long ago.

She was here for a job interview and I was a visitor. Encounters escalated into conversation, coke and popcorn. We were in free flow, So long ago.

Ah, the reflection of disco dying in eighty-one, while getting to know you, getting to care.
A cactus transplant, celebrating joint-ownership of a 5 quart pitcher and balancing the mind.

Meeting the families-meeting the families and street tours of Lewisburg. Papaw’s wide smile and arms opened to visits, arms opened to aging.  My heart still presses on his image. Thank you West Virginia as you house the root of my being, the connection to my heart.

Learning, Growing, Knowing…

Moving. Your undergrad assembled as I moved the corporate stick around the State. We broke into University – Illinois on schedule and took a pass at acceptance to Vet school. Had a bigger school to attend- as again, the corporation took us to the banks of the Ohio, where Pete Rose was still famed and chili had given Cincinnati prominence. 

Another new house and water enough to wind surf and sail. Two small beaches as there was sand and gravel. Friends forever branded on our being and we settled in for the Vet school scene, back to Illini.

She, so skilled found time to sew, stencil and bake. She so kind, finding time to love and read and such differences she would make.

I give up the Corporation and take up the University, along with my new business birth.
Gardens planted, flowers bloom and life moves to visits of Paris and Piccadilly and our parent’s places.

We graduate Wisconsin and have flourished in this scene. 
Throwing a family and friend party without spare and soon after pack for out there…

A month-long externship gave call to the place and spending that first job here was not to be replaced. Grand Junction, CO lacks glamour and elite but it has open spaces and outdoor life with weather not beat.

Back to Illinois and open our own – aw, you never know a business partner until you have one and selling back our piece of that pie; No regrets, no regrets - given a decade, BIG city goodbye.

We looked at Santa Fe, Austin, Asheville and Prescott and Seattle too. Oh, we looked it all over and knew what to do- for the need of simplicity; City life has pluses but farm life has our pulses.

That first year, she was their Kennel gal and now – she is their Boarded internist. Home, included working again at that first Vet clinic. That first place, so long ago.

I believe I will continue to look out at the pasture, cut some fresh flowers and say that having now caressed my mind, I believe it has only been a few days. Not so long ago. Each hour is mine, ours and I will remain blessed with my life for I have you.

Happy Anniversary


Barbara McDonald