April 26, 1992

Phil-

Hi, hon. How are you? I'm fine. I miss you though. Tomorrow is our anniversary and I really wish we could spend it together, I don't think I ever fully realized what a major part of my life you are until I went away to school. I've met so many new people and I'm having a great time, but there's always a part of me that wishes you could be here with me all the time. 

There's always a part of me that really aches to see you. I can't wait until summer when we can spend every possible moment together. I hope the coming months are good ones for us. I'm sure they will be. I feel it in my heart. I love you very much. I miss you more and more each day.

Melanie

My heart was right. It's been good.

I love you.

11 Years Equals

132 months
573 weeks
4015 days
96, 423 hours
5,785,436 minutes

Thank you for spending all this time with me. Happy Anniversary. I love you.

A Wedding Story

He came home on leave and she asked, "So, um, do you still want to marry me?" and he said, "Hell yes! " and they exchanged vows one week later in a civil ceremony. There were no flowers, no rings, no photographers. The wedding colors were denim and denim.
 

After the ceremony they went home to their apartment by the beach, he carried her over the threshold and they ate macaroni and cheese. She went to work, he got ready to head back to his ship the next day.

They kept their marriage secret from all but a few close friends and family intending to "get engaged" when they saved up for the rings and then "get married" six months later because who needs a long engagement and they had been together since they were 17 (except for the time he was stationed in Italy) and they got married two days after his sister and didn't want to steal her thunder.

Except there was a flaw in their plan. If they "married" so soon after his sister, his out of town relatives would not be able to fly out to California again so soon, so they "got engaged" but changed their plans and set a date one year in the future on the day of their original anniversary in high school.

She put a deposit on a place and she and her mother shopped for dresses and she would take off her wedding band when any of the family were around and they continued to live happily together at their apartment by the beach.
 

Except their was another flaw in their plan. After almost eight months, her father, who worked in law enforcement, started to get suspicious so he wrote to the county recorder's office and requested a copy of their marriage license which he produced one day with a "do you have something you want to tell us?"
 

And she fessed up and explained the reasons why they didn't tell and stopped looking for dresses and canceled the place and was secretly a little relieved because the "wedding" was getting bigger than she wanted it to anyway.



Her mother threw them a party and a few close friends and family ate, drank and got merry to celebrate the couple's soon to be one year anniversary and she thought, "we'll just renew our vows on our ten year anniversary," and they continued to live happily in their apartment by the beach.
 


Fast forward 10 years, two more apartments, at least five jobs, several cars, a post 9/11 activation, one baby, typical marriage ups and downs, a house purchased, a kitchen remodeled and job lost and that's where you will find them today.

And she would like him to know how very lucky she is and how much she loves him and how thankful she is for the life they have built together and she would marry him in secret all over again but this time in a dress and they continue to live happily together in their house by near pretty close to the beach.

Happy Anniversary Honey! 

(That was the really really condensed version)