27 Years

 Today is one of those strange days.  It's not hot, but it IS sticky.  It's rainy and then the sun is out.  And 27 years ago, it was pretty much the same.

As I write this I am sitting in the living room at the shore; the same place I was 27 years ago.  Today, I'm not too worried about the weather.  Back then I was.  I had been promised, by my always magical and optimistical Uncle Harold that the sun would come out.  He was right.  Uncle Harold was always right.  (At least that's how I saw it.)  By the later afternoon the sun was shining. (At least here...I understand in North Jersey was a rain soaked mess for a LONG time.) I'm not so sure about that happening today.  There are lots of omnious clouds, but there are also patches of blue, so who knows.  (I'm just glad that Hurricane Lee is going to miss us.)

I wanted to be here, at the shore, on our 27th anniversary today.  For the first time in a LONG time, not being constrained by the public school system, I was able to take the day off and come down.  It is relatively quiet and peaceful.  (Not as much as it was 27 years ago, when plots of land were still undeveloped and traffic almost non-existent after Labor Day.)  While I would have loved to have gotten away somewhere as we often did before our son was born.  We often travel to Walt Disney World (if I recall correctly we did that for our first, third [although a month late], fourth and fifth), or New England  (our second, sixth and maybe seventh).  However it turned out that travel just wasn't in the cards.  But at least we could return to the "scene of the crime" as it were.

27 years ago, a wedding on the bay side of the island was not common, especially if it were not on a Saturday.  Our evening wedding was on a Friday night (yes, Friday the 13th), which I thought would give people time to enjoy the weekend.  I think they did.  (Especially the family friends who decided to go skinny dipping in a neighbor's pool after the party was over.)  I know we did.  (Even though both my husband and I were exhausted and in pain when all was said and done.)

In the past 27 years I don't think we've ever been back here on this day.  This year it was something I wanted to do.  It was something I needed to do.

As I look out the bay window to the backyard and the lagoon beyond it, I can see my mother in her sea foam green St. John knit suit.  I see my father in his suit.  I see my Uncle Harold.  All who made the day what it was and who I miss terribly.   The setting is the same and although much has changed around here, this patch of land is still very much like it was in 1996.

Could it really have been 27 years ago?  In some ways it seems like yesterday; and in other much longer.

If the weather holds (and I hope it will), I plan to walk over to the bay and (hopefully) watch the sun go down.  Maybe I can even get my husband to join me. I think I can convince him because for the past 27 years he has been my support system; the one person I can always turn to and lean on.  (And boy have I needed that.)  We have stood by one another in sickness and in health. (We're both pretty tired of the sickness part).  We've stood by each other for richer or poorer. (I think we're ready to move onto the richer part now!)

If nature permits, it would be nice to stand side by side, hand in hand and watch the sun sink over the bay.  If not...well there will be other sunsets...and, I hope, many more years to enjoy them together.