I was going to write about my joy at the coming college football season, but I’ve changed my mind, and I’m going to get personal.

I’ve written about personal things before in columns here and at other newspapers. I’ve written about my daughter’s birth and about watching her grow; about family gatherings and about my parents. This time I’m writing about something else.

Forty-two years ago, Aug. 16, 1974, I made one of the best decisions I will ever make. I married my wife.

In those years since that ceremony at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Baton Rouge, we’ve gone through a lot together: sickness, the birth of our daughter, the deaths of our fathers, a lot of moves, four hurricanes, a bunch of tropical storms, a high school graduation, dealing with the aging of our mothers, and just the general other problems that face all married couples.

I have to give Marcia credit for staying this long with me. I’m not an easy person to get along with. I’m moody, impulsive, down right ornery when LSU’s losing and prone to minor outbursts of temper on occasion. I drive too fast; I’ve been known to take a chance or two over the years to get a story or a photograph. As evidence of the latter, I’ve flown in a helicopter over a burning oil rig, flown off the decks of a Coast Guard Cutter and a Navy destroyer, flown with the Hurricane Hunters and done an aircraft carrier trap and take off from the USS John C. Stennis.

For some reason, she has managed to hang in there, putting up with my little caprices and my occasional laziness, nursing me when I’m sick or injured and watching me to make sure I take medications and follow diets.

In the past, when people have asked me how we’ve managed to stay together so long, I tell them, “Love, trust, understanding, communication, and the realization that had either of us married anyone else, we’d be divorced by now.”

But all kidding aside, I love my wife very much. She is my best friend. That’s a relationship that goes back longer than most of my co-workers in the newsroom have been on this earth. In fact, we’ve been married longer than most of them have been on this earth.

Marcia has always been someone I can talk to. Sometimes, she may have to drag out what’s bothering me, but eventually I tell her my problems.

I have, for 42 years, been married to one of the most wonderful people on this earth, and I’d like to spend another 42 with her, although we may both be on life support.

So here is an anniversary greeting for someone I can’t do without and whom I’ve never said, “I love you” near enough.

Now, can I go see LSU play Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in Green Bay?

 

John Surratt is a staff writer at The Vicksburg Post. You may reach him at john.surratt@vicksburpost.com. Readers are invited to submit their opinions for publication.