A Candlestick: To many candles for one cake!!

Terry was 18 when I first baked him a birthday cake. Or was he 17? he was one or the other! Of that I'm sure!! So Friday, the 24th and now he's (drum-roll. please. loud. he might not have his hearing aid on!)....76! Moving past that 3/4 century mark and into that last life phase where all warranties, on appliances and bodies, slowly disintegrate! What a rather grim Happy Birthday thought! It is a reality though and we are weathering the storms with as much gusto as we can muster. ETE stage of life. Endure To End!

I'm thankful that we are together. I'm thankful we love each other. I'm thankful to be so comfortable with this darling guy. Does he drive me crazy? sometimes. Yes, he does sometimes. Truth be told he would say the same thing about me. We've only been married 57 years so we are still working out the kinks in our relationship!

He is my rock. All male. not one of those men that loves to go for lunch to chat and all that sort of dreamy relationship details. He is sensible and sane when I tend to be irrational and a bit insane at times!! (Halloween fright--you know about the horror of hormones...I assume? I have a friend that thinks all of us girlies will get a pass and go straight through the pearly gates. Just for enduring our femaleness!) Anyhow so I get a pass, at least a break, for being out of sorts at times. He makes no accusations or comments that might cause his life to be in danger, with what seems to be-- the mercurial and in sync with the cycle of the moon phase-- in my life. He is just wonderfully supportive and look at where it's got him!! to his 76th year in mortality. Go super man!!

Super man! Yes, he is super man with super strength and super endurance. Paul Bunyan strong. Ability to slay marauding giants to protect me. Many times over our marriage I have awakened him from his peaceful slumber, poking/shaking him and stage whispering-- Hurry!!! someone is trying to break in!! I hear them!! Without fail he will bound from the bed, adrenaline coursing through his Viking veins, and go to slay the dragon, with his bare hands, that I tell him is lurking in the kitchen by the door. I fall peacefully back to sleep while he army-like scouts around the house interior and then even goes outside.

Hmmmm...when did that last happen? When you lose lots of your hearing, as he has, you sleep in peace with no fear. I seldom hear anything either that sets off my inner alarm. We sleep protected by prayer and my car keys on the nightstand, to set off our car alarm, if needs be. Oh, of course, we all know that the entire neighborhood would rush to that frightening sound!

But he was always the man of the hour and I never feared with him nearby. His muscular strength has been admired by his children and others. He could and did carry/lift/move things that others would feel impossible. Lots of stories of those feats. Yet he never bragged about it but he enjoyed his strength for the power it gave him and used it in his daily life. all the time.

He misses it.

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Wednesday I left the house for an errand. pulled out of where I'd parked in a non-existent graveled parking spot to head home. and heard something dragging underneath! I was horrified. Terry was all relaxed and recovering from those few rough days and feeling chipper. I hated to tell him but knew I had to. I had torn some plate lose. It was late afternoon. Despite my pleading to not do it...he wanted to beat the rain...he fixed it...in the rain.

I have to admit I was teary the entire time watching him work with something that has been so simple for the majority of his life. I watched from a distance. I tell you I just wanted to run out and hug him and love him and tell him how much I appreciate him and drag him out from under the car and tell him...let's get help. Stop.

He never lost his cool. It took a very long time. But he did it. He said...the frustrating thing is that should have been a quick job. That time is gone.

checking out what I'd damaged!

some badge of honor? a mechanic's beat-up dirty old hat?

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We are glad we have shared the majority of our lives and that is marked on this day by the number of birthdays we have celebrated. All these years of baking that Cocoalight Cake and this year he has another baker in his life!! I've been replaced!!! This was what she made him!!