The happy couple circa 1975.
For those who have openly disapproved of our partnership (and those who perhaps were not as thrilled with his choice as they had hoped to be, but who kept firmly silent about it), I've got a newsflash for you: I would not have been my first choice for Lawrence either!
The happy couple circa 1982.
But guess what? It turns out that Lawrence didn't want my first choice for him, or yours either - he wanted his own first choice, which appears to have been this.
The happy couple in 2009.
Our first date three years ago wasn't intended to be a "date" at all. Having found rapport in online chat, we decided to go to Kemah Boardwalk for a 30-minute beer, just a friendly thing. When we decided to expand the meeting into a dinner, we were startled to find that all the restaurants had shut down: unnoticed by us, five hours had passed, and it was already midnight.
The rest is three years of history the outcome of which you know: what we share proved to be more compelling than our obvious differences (of which age is the more minor).
But here's something I bet you didn't know: every great relationship has room for a bit of mythology, and ours centers on the mysterious deaths of a devoted couple who shared with us exactly the same age discrepancy. Respectfully, I reproduce here a synopsis of of their story from the Texas EquuSearch website:
Bill and Martha disappeared into the waters just off Kemah Boardwalk several weeks before Lawrence and I unwittingly spent hours gazing out toward the exact place where they departed our physical world. I later wondered if perhaps their spirits grew tired of haunting that choppy water and if perhaps they saw in us an opportunity that night. Perhaps Martha saw us standing by the water's edge and exclaimed, "Look, Bill - a couple quite like us, who will raise eyebrows for some of the same reasons we did!" And with that, their spirits rose up from that water, vaulted over the dock railing, and streamed through us as they departed on the last leg of their journey to the next place, and as they did so, they left behind in us some of the great love that they shared, for it was better for such spirits to touch the living than to remain in a restless bay.
Probably not, but it's a warm and enchanting bit of revisionist imaginative history.
:-)
Or is it?? I had to interrupt the writing of this blog entry to take Cayley to school this morning. As we dashed out the door, I got a spectacular view of the pot of gold at the end of my existential rainbow. Was it solely a meteorological phenomenon, or was it Bill and Martha's way of re-emphasizing??
:-)
I love the picture of the house, so pretty! And I for one, can say, I am so glad Lawrence found you. And, you should have heard him tell Brandon and I all about you at a Texans game after yall had met. So, happy 3 years! Now, when is the wedding!!!??? :)
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for me to believe that anyone has been against you two being together. From the first time Lawrence told me about you, I was hopeful. He had such an ugly history with loving that I prayed he would protect himself. But he never needed to, you protected him. I remember one family gathering where L was fully hungover and you said, "He hardly ever drinks, so of course when He does, I am going to take care of him." In that moment I knew you loved him, and accepted him as is.
ReplyDeleteYou guys fit. It does make me sad that he will never have a son, that this will be the end of the Baitlands. Yet all of that is bullshit when you compare it to the peace and ability to breathe freely that he has found with you.
He already is the best uncle, EVER, well Brandon is good too, BUT I know Lawrence will make sure my boys know how to tear a car apart and put it back together. He will pass on our dad's knowledge through his four nephews, and through Cayley.
Life happens the way it should. You three are a family. You are whole together. ANd I am beyond happy that you all have each other.
:)