DAY FOUR--PART III---GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY SERIES: "WHAT MARRIAGE IS FOR"...

Bob and I agreed it was an irony, on this eve of our 50th wedding anniversary, to pull the special-edition news magazine from our mailbox and see the large, bold letters of the cover story: WHAT MARRIAGE IS FOR.

We quickly scanned the associated stories and discovered that they covered the government's role, the political questions, the gay versus straight, the religious side, the history and a whole lot more.

We chose not to dive into the articles. At our age, we decided it's enough to know what marriage has been for us during these years that have flown by so fast that we can hardly believe our married years have added up to 50.

For us, marriage has been a strong and loving partnership. We have worked together and played together; raised children together and married those children off; lost loved ones and gained loved ones...

We have learned things and forgotten things; made money and lost money; gloried over triumphs and together handled disappointments; lived with health and lived with illness...

We have laughed and we have cried. Our years have been filled with joys as well as sorrows, but they have never NOT been filled with love.

We have lived a great many more years as a married couple than we lived as single people.

We have never NOT wanted to be with each other, and as tomorrow's Golden Anniversary arrives, we pray for as many more good years together as providence can send us.

So, what is marriage for? For us it's been the way to live.

We are blessed.