On a cool autumn day, Sept. 17, 1956, a petite brunette with flashing blue eyes and her charming beau, who also had dark hair, matching brown eyes and a mischiveous smile, took vows before society and deity.
Forty-seven years later, the couple are still married. What's more, they are still in love.
In today's world, such feats are becoming less and less common.
Cohabitation is accepted, as is having a serious relationship without ever tying the knot, making marriage but one of several options for those who pine for each other. Between 1975 and 2002, the share of Americans who had never married increased from about 24 percent to 29 percent, according to an AmeriStat report based statistics compiled in March.
Those who do marry are rarely the traditional families of yesteryear.
Even if they are among the 50 percent who don't find themselves in divorce court, the same AmeriStat report states that in 2002, 7 percent of all U.S. households consisted of married couples with children in which the wife stayed at home.
Dual-income families with children made up more than twice as many households, the report continued. And families with two incomes and no children outnumbered the traditional family by almost two to one.
Some couples are likely sticking it out in poor marriages that exist in name only.
Others are likely complacent, not really thinking about their companions one way or the other.
A few are likely actually enjoying their companions, long term.
And, yes, we can expect that there are couples who manage to achieve the marital bliss they so eagerly set out to create when they linked themselves together as one.
Rarer still, are those who after decades of adversity and adventure, are likely to love each other as much - if not more - than when they wed.
Today's grim statistics regarding the downfall of the traditional family and the sanctity of marriage are mirrored within my own family.
My second-oldest brother and his wife divorced within their first 10 years.
My younger sister, although she has now been happily remarried for more than 10 years, realized within the first month that things were not going to work.
My marriage lasted 18 years before falling completely apart in 1997. I have remained single since.
My youngest brother, although he is in a long-term on-again, off-again relationship with the mother of his child, has never married.
My oldest brother, however, managed to marry well. He and his wife show no signs of the slightest chinks in their armor. They appear to be forever linked.
I believe my son and his new summer bride are destined for the same success. You can see it in the way they treat each other.
It's nothing short of total commitment, and undying respect.
The same has held true for my parents who, as of Sept. 17, 2003, have been married 47 years.
Sure, my mother's hair has whitened, she's weathered life's inevitable adversities and sometimes she feels so frazzled she would just as soon scream as handle yet another trial head-on.
But, through it all, her smile never dims when she speaks of the romance that will always exist between herself and her beloved husband.
Never mind that he doesn't always know who she is anymore. When he doesn't recognize her, he flatly tells her that they can't be alone because his wife wouldn't approve.
Alzheimers Disease patient or not, Lenny Hesterman knows to whom his heart is faithful.
It did, does, and will always belong to his one true love, Naomi.
How wonderful. And how rare.
May the rest of us, (including those of us who have as of yet failed at such quests), one day be as lucky in love.
Happy 47th anniversary, Mom and Dad. You should be proud.
