Michael, my beloved husband of 37 years, and I met March 3, 1968; six days later we were married. As we were standing in front of the Justice of the Peace, Michael asked me "Honey, why do you want to marry me?" I replied, "Because, my love, in you, I found the other half of me."

After a 3 year challenge of stomach cancer, Michael was slowly leaving this Earth for the Spirit World. Barely able to speak, he opened his eyes and quietly asked, "Honey, tell me again, why did you marry me?" I replied, "Because, my love, in you, I found the other half of me." Our hearts, beings and souls locked together into a few seconds of an exquisitely beautifully bonded bliss that was to be our last shared moments of humanness. What a priceless treasure. What a gift!!!

Each and every memory of the 37 years of marriage, plus the never-ending love we shared, creates the strengths I use to keep moving forward, keep healing and keep living. I live in humble gratitude and thankfulness for these strengths. I learned early in my journey of grief that pain and gratitude cannot occupy the same space. Most of the time, I choose gratitude. The times, when I do choose to experience the pain of grief, it is done to truly remember the wonderful lessons of gratitude.

I miss my Michael deeply but with the gift of the great strengths, I am able to honor Michael by living well, loving well and being well.

By learning to respond to each moment as it comes, grief taught me the valuable lesson to nourish who I am in this moment. Allowing Faith and Trust to open my heart, I finally saw the beauty of me. I am vibrantly alive and creating a new life. My vibrancy is fueled by the strength of our great love and memories.

P.S. This is how we met:

On March 3rd, 1968, I had been invited to an acquaintances place for dinner. I wasnÂt fond of the couple and chose not to go. Then, something struck a chord in me and I changed my mind and attended the dinner.

When I arrived, the acquaintances expressed great relief to see me as they had covertly arranged a "blind date" meeting with a guy they worked with. I am not fond of surprises like that and I pissed and grumped around but finally agreed to meet the fellow.

Oh, my God!! When he walked into the room and our eyes met, the world and time stood still. Before we could even be introduced, we started towards each other, each of us reaching both hands towards the other. As we grasped hands and our eyes met, we both knew, in THAT instantÂÂÂTHIS WAS IT!! We immediately walked out to our cars and drove to a nearby truck stop that had a 24 hr café. We sat in a booth and we talked for nearly 40 hours. (We ordered meals and would walk around outside and come back in talk some more.) We poured out our hearts and souls to each other; sharing our lifeÂs goals, our beliefs, desires, our wants, needs, likes, dislikes and what had brought each of us to that moment in time.

We were married March 9th, 1968, and lived a loving, richly fulfilling life together for 37 years, 3 months and 11 days.

How did you meet your spouses?

Peace and Prayers,

Turquoise