Relationships & Family

Say It with...Tamales?

jbloustein — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:30:35 -0600

Bill and I love food almost as much as we love each other.

Early in our marriage we made a pact to plan our vacations around great eating opportunities.

In our 21 years together, we’ve written cookbooks on the best way to grill chicken and what we consider to be the real American breakfast. We’ve eaten fresh whiting in Australia, fermented pork in Thailand and grilled shrimp with Kashmiri chiles in India.

Together, Sisters Have Been Married 140 Years

batch — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:05:08 -0600

Seventy years of wedded bliss is enough of an achievement to warrant a grand commemoration, but having your sister celebrating alongside you must make it even better.

British sisters Doris and Margaret Wiles recently marked the milestone of a combined total of 140 years of marriage. The pair had a double wedding in Manchester, England on October 21, 1939.

Doris, 92, told the Daily Telegraph that their nuptials took place just a few weeks after Britain declared war on Germany. They put their plans together in haste due to their fears about the war.

The Secret to 60 Years

admin — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:42:00 -0500

For our sixtieth wedding anniversary John and I planned a little party. My thoughts went back to another party we threw nearly 50 years earlier. That was a sixtieth anniversary celebration too—my grandparents'. For a week before that event I vacuumed, washed windows, borrowed dishes. I even splurged on a cleaning lady to help me wash and wax the floors. Mrs. Hargrove was a large, silent, efficient person who went stolidly about her work without much interest in the reason for all these party preparations. "Just think, Mrs.

Widow Walks 10,000 Miles in Husband's Memory

batch — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:05:07 -0500

At age 88, Martha Michel reached a remarkable milestone—and she did it to honor the memory of her late husband, Lester.

On October 24, Martha completed her goal of walking 10,000 miles. It was a project that took her 11 years of daily laps around a lake at the Namaste Alzheimer Center, the Colorado Springs Gazette reports.

Remotely Yours

admin — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 06:43:00 -0600

The first time Tad and I met, my junior year in college, I thought he was cocky. Good-looking, but cocky. We were at a party and he'd made a sarcastic remark about music majors. I was a music major, so I said dismissively to a friend, "Look at Joe College. He thinks he's so cool."

Surprised by Love

admin — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:03:00 -0500

The bathroom was a mess. Tissues overflowing from the trash can. A tube of toothpaste lying open on the counter. A bar of grimy soap lying next to the soapdish. My husband, Glen, had only stopped by the house while I was at work to get some things and do his laundry, but he sure made his presence known. A mess…just like our marriage, I thought. We were in the middle of a "therapeutic separation." That's what the family counselor called it anyway.

Queen of the Prom

batch — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:19:44 -0500

Many years ago, when Melvin D. Jackson took me to the senior prom, he didn't own a car, so we walked to the auditorium.

I didn't mind; I fell in love and a month later we married. Last spring he surprised me. "Gladys, we're going to the prom! After 47 years, I want to try it again—in style."

Melvin got us an invitation to the prom at Frederick Douglass High School, where our own children had been students. I bought a fancy sequined gown, a far cry from the plain dress I wore when I was 17.

Love Rediscovered

jbloustein — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:58:23 -0500

It was the last week in May 2003.

My husband, Tim—a highly successful radio executive—and I were hosting a six-day business junket in Italy for the clients of an L.A. radio station.

Ever the dutiful wife, I helped Tim ensure that approximately 40 clients had the time of their lives in Florence and Portofino.

We were here to do a job, not to search for romance under the Tuscan sun. I was convinced those days were long over for us.

Heart's Content

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:57:28 -0600

I stuffed a folded shirt into my husband's suitcase, glad that he was leaving. Maybe a few days apart will help, I thought. Mike and our teenage son, Matthew, were driving north to my parents' house in New Jersey. They would be picking up an old, run-down car for Matthew to work on, towing it back to Florida. And they would bring back Grammy's old pie safe for me.

Can Fairy Tales Come True?

admin — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:20:06 -0600

It should have been a high point in my life. Instead, it was one of the lowest.

My career had taken off and I was being photographed for the cover of an album I was doing called Songs from the Beginner's Bible. "We'd like some pictures of you and your husband together," the art director said. And suddenly there Ray and I were, smiling at the camera with our arms around each other, posing all lovey-dovey as though we were a fairy-tale couple.