In three days is my grand parent’s 64th wedding anniversary. Today, Grandma is in the hospital with chest pain.( Atrial fibrillation which means fluttering of the heart, with low blood pressure and high heart rate.to be specific) I’ve been trying for a week to think of something to write for their anniversary book – something meaningful or sappy, something… at this point anything. I check facebook when i got home from work and the only thing from my family is talking about Grandma.

I am often reminded of how lucky I am to be so close to my extended family. My entire life I have grown up with cousins, aunts and uncles and Grandma and Grandpa close by. There has never been a time where I have been without my family. Even living sometimes 2000 miles away they have always been there. The common thread my Grandparents. We’ve met at their house year after year for holidays and birthdays and graduations. Our friends have adopted them, and our spouses/significant others have been welcomed in as we grow older. They are the ones that picked us up from school when we were sick and no one else could be there. They were the ones to drive out to pick you up from anywhere your car had decided to break down. If Grandpa couldn’t manage to fix it right then. My Grandparents are our glue. We would be lost with out them. Either stranded on the side of the road or going hungry on Sundays. We’ve all helped pick beans or raspberries in the summer and make squished mints at Christmas time. We’ve always known what love really is and what it should be because of the little things: cold water and pickles right before bed, sunglasses to watch tv and eat breakfast with on the mornings where the sun wasn’t going to rise for another hour or two and the lights were to bright to see. Macaroni and Cheese. Saving the first raspberries of the season. Wild flowers along the back fence. Grandpa not getting upset when you carve your name in the freshly poured cement. Going to big lots or the dollar store with the dollar or two grandma gave you and being able to by anything you thought might fit your Barbie.

My cousin’s facebook post “KP : OMG, my grandpa is so SWEET! “I met your grandma and knew she was the one for me…met her one day and married her the next”” reminded me of the story of how my Grandparents met. From what I remember/know Grandpa was in Europe for WWII and they had been writing back and forth to each other for a year and a half. When Grandpa came back to the states he’d seen his family for a few days and then drove 3 states over and met Grandma. They got married the next day. Who in the right minds does that? That kind of wonderful crazy has lasted 64 years. Good, bad, moving across the country, military and all. That kind of crazy is what you need to last 64 years. I hope that kind crazy is hereditary.