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Posted on by Debbie

Forty years of married life – makes us sound old!

Photo by Giftpundits.com on Pexels.com

It feels like just yesterday!

I seem to remember my grandparents and great aunt and uncles celebrating their 40th wedding anniversaries, many years ago, and my overriding memory is that they were all really old!

My siblings celebrated my parent’s 40th with a dinner but I didn’t seem to think of my parents as all that old at the time, maybe because I was older.

And now it seems I am old too, as the Mathematician and I celebrate our 40th anniversary today. It seems just like yesterday that we had the wedding!

But the funny thing is I don’t feel old, and I definitely don’t feel like I’ve been married for THAT long!

Then and Now…

On our honeymoon
Just a few short years ago on our honeymoon!
Debbie and Grant
Debbie and Grant

Just this week I came across this passage about marriage, it jumped out at me:

Yes it’s boring and crazy and funny and sad….it’s also a lifetime together, a real commitment and well worth all the ups and downs.

You can read last year’s anniversary post here for more wedding memories and photos – 14245 days later

Celebrating 40 years

This year we are in London for our anniversary, at the end of our two months away from home visiting our daughter and her partner and our newest granddaughter Dottie. We fly home to Australia tomorrow. It is one anniversary we will always remember!

We are also counting our blessings, as of this moment, our house is still standing, despite three near misses with the ferocious bushfires burning in our hometown of Tumbarumba. I wrote about the fires recently and how hard it is to be on the other side of the world watching it all unfold from a wet, green country.

I’m thankful to have been able to spend so much time with our daughter and Dottie, who I am pleased to say is thriving. She’s now over 4kg and laughing and smiling at us all. Considering she was born at 25 weeks weighing 845grams, she is our little miracle baby!

Our daughters back at home have had their own issues with smoke and dreadful air quality, pregnancy issues and worrying about their Grandmother in the fire zone as well as fear for our family home and the community. They’ve been very brave and supportive and I’m very proud of them.

We have been seriously worried about our house and our town, and we’re thankful to all the brave firefighters, but also worried about the impact these fires are having on people’s mental health. The constant state of anxiety, adrenaline pumping and fear takes a toll. Our town is still cut off with locals not advised to return home any time soon, there’s no power, limited services and apparently we’re not out of danger of the fires just yet. It’s been very hard for everyone and it’s not easing from the sounds of things. But we know we are very lucky!

Ruby…

What exactly does ruby represent for a 40th wedding anniversary?

Enshrouded in traditional symbolism, the 40th anniversary is known as the ruby anniversary. When given for an anniversary, it signifies the loyal devotion of a long married pair.  Google Search

I think that sums it up very well and I’m tempted to look for a nice ruby ‘something’ for our anniversary as a token of all we’ve been through. Any suggestions?

Thanks for all your love – it certainly makes the world go round.

Photo by rovenimages.com on Pexels.com

Sunday Stills is run by Hugh this week, with the theme of OLD. This is one of my favourite shots from Glastonbury Tor, a very old and historical location in Somerset. It’s quite fitting that it’s a shot looking up at the sky through St Michael’s Tower – I’m all for things looking up!

And less of the OLD!

Stay well and hug those dear to you. Happy anniversary to us both 🙂

Deb xx

All my Sunday Stills posts can be found here

Linking up with Denyse for #Lifethisweek and Midlife Share the Love party linkup

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Everyone has a story to tell!

Debbie - mother of a 40 year old

Deb is a young-at-heart & active 60+ blogger/retiree, after being made redundant from her 22-year career managing education programs in a men’s correctional centre (jail). She now spends her time reading, blogging, riding her ebike and travelling. Deb was awarded a Bravery Award from the Queen when she was 17 after a tragic accident – a definite life changing moment! She is married with 3 grown-up daughters & has 4 grandchildren. You can read more of Deb’s story here

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91 Replies to “Forty years of married life – makes us sound old!”

  3. Happy Anniversary, to you and your husband, Deb. Tim and I will have been married 37 years, this May. I can relate to what you said about not feeling old. I feel better than ever. I also feel very grateful to have a good marriage and a happy children. I’m so happy to hear that Dottie is doing well. Hope you had a great time in London. Cheers.

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  4. Happy happy anniversary! It’s a long time and maybe we are getting old, but much better than the alternative. How lovely to have that time in England with the bubba, but I’m sure you’ll be pleased to see your house again.

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  5. HI Deb,

    Happy anniversary! I wish you and your hubby many, many more wonderful years!

    I’m happy to also see that your precious grandbaby is growing healthy and strong. With so much love, how could she not?

    I hope all is still well with your home and in your hometown.

    ~Allison
    MLSTL

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    1. Thanks a lot Allison, I think love helps in these situations. All is well at home although the weather is quite different to what we’ve had for the past 2 months and we’re feeling it! Lovely to have you visit my blog. Thank you 🙂

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  6. Congratulations on your ruby wedding Deb. I’m understanding how you feel about ageing. I have to remind myself that I’m getting older as I don’t feel much older at all. I’ve also been worried about your house and your town. Still have fingers crossed that all is ok

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  9. Happy Anniversary Deb. We’re a couple of years behind you but you are so right about not feeling old and it does seem amazing that we’ve been together that long. I would say here’s to another 40 but that seems far too much. Hope the year ahead is as happy as every year has been so far.

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  10. Oh we have had a few chats about love and marriage..and being teachers getting wed in the school hols too.

    Now that you mentioned Ruby wedding, I remember my parents’ one. It was 1986 and they had us (kids and grandkids) to a family lunch at Manly Pacific Hotel. We (I) organised a photo shoot of sorts at our house a few weeks earlier and we have my parents the pics. What we did not know then was our son (7) was coming down with chicken pox and he had them well& truly by the celebration so my husband and he were non-attendees. Each time I saw those pics (ages ago now) all I could think was “oh gosh he was incubating them then”. He turned 41 today!!
    Thanks so much for joining in the 2nd Life This Week in 2020 and next week the optional prompt is 3/51 Remember This 20.1.2020. I do hope to see you link up too. Denyse.

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  12. Congratulations Deb, your then & now photos are fab. Watching the fires on the news has been so sad and scary, I remember you posting about it on your Instagram. You’ll be glad to see all your Australia family are ok but I guess you’ll miss little Dottie.
    Lorraine #MLSTL

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