Anniversaries

It's weird, but it was Simon's piece on this being the anniversary of the moon launch that reminded me that today would have been my parents' 37th wedding anniversary. Weirdness.

I can remember dad telling me they were on their honeymoon and watching some of it on TV. I'd mock that and say perhaps it was a harbinger to come, except on myself and Cathy's honeymoon (we did ours before we got married, knowing what the weeks after our wedding were going to be like) we watched the pope die from the Dominican Republic. I have no idea what that's a harbinger of.

It's easy for the anniversary to slip my mind because my parents aren't married anymore. In fact, they're rapidly approaching that point where they've been separated longer than they were married. Which I suspect is going to be one of those odd moments of realization in a few years time.

I'm hardly alone in having my parents divorced. There are lots of kids out there who have gone through this. And I suspect I'm more fortunate than most. In retrospect it was pretty easy to see my folks hadn't been happy for many years leading up to their split. But the combination of them doing a mostly pretty good job of hiding it, the utter obliviousness to all things concerning your parents that comes from being a teenage boy and their desire to wait until I was "old enough to handle it" made things much easier. I was 19 when they split. Considering what I was like at 14, it might have been a lot more scarring.

Goes to show what parents will do for their kids, I guess, even when they're unhappy.

I've handled their divorce well, for the most part. I think the most drama that came out of it was when I found out they were splitting about three days before my girlfriend at the time was heading to Greece for a month. I didn't tell her because I didn't want her to worry about me and ruin her trip. Unfortunately, her parents heard (her mom and my mom worked in the same mall). I also didn't tell her the night she got back because, well, why dump all of this on her when she just got home. I'd tell her the next day.

Sadly, her parents told her, accidentally (they thought she knew) right after I went home that night. She was a redhead with a temper so I was used to some fights. Still, that was an epic chewing out, I must say.

Anyway, my parents are better off. It was about the easiest, friendliest divorce you're ever likely to see. They're better friends now than they ever were when they were married. Mom is still close with all of dad's family. They talk on the time. Mom's remarried, but I rather doubt dad ever will. But they're both happy. Funny how things work out.

Still, 37 years. I'll be 72 when myself and Cathy celebrate our 37th anniversary….

Seventy-two. Jesus. Excuse me, but I feel the urge to jump off something tall at this moment...